IronPuppy 2009 Intro/Update #1

Greetings Everyone, June 16, 2009

Welcome to IronPuppy 2009, my annual project in which I swim, bike and run my way across the country to raise awareness and hopefully a few bucks for one of the coolest organizations in the country. As is the case each year, I consider my options to work for an organization that will do the most good for the most people. Call it respect, admiration or even a bit of guilt, but I can’t help but admire our current military and all those who’ve served in the past. I’m not a veteran but my family history, circle of friends and my life in a “military town” reinforces daily the sacrifices made by our service men and women that allow me to live a pretty cool lifestyle.

Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), has always provided a wonderful service to improve the lives our fellow citizens that struggle with a wide variety of issues ranging from: autism, Down Syndrome, paralysis, amputations, hearing loss, etc, etc, by providing FREE OF CHARGE, service dogs that enhance the lives of the person with the disability and his or her family in ways too numerous to list here.

CCI has once again stepped up to the plate to provide these dogs to our veterans who are victims of multiple conditions and injuries received while doing what they can to improve and maintain the lifestyles that we all currently enjoy. The “Wounded Veteran Initiative”, the latest program created by CCI allows me to raise funds for our veterans while continuing to express my passion for everything else they do.

Here’s how the IronPuppy Updates work. Every couple weeks as the season progresses, I send these updates to the hundreds of people on this list. They contain a bit of race reports, cool updates on what CCI is doing, hopefully a bit of humor, maybe a bit of inspiration and most important a vehicle for you to consider a donation to this amazing organization.

To see what CCI is doing for our veterans click here: HERE. Hopefully, you’ll look around the site and realize as do I what a great cause I’m supporting. For info on my season please visit http://www.joeturcotte.com/. I will post updates, cool pix and lots of other fun info as I progress through this year’s events. The season begins this Saturday with a 14.5 mile run up Mt. Evans, followed 24 hours later with the 5430 Sprint Triathlon in Boulder. Each event I participate in this summer is a warm up for the Ironman World Championships this October in Kona, Hawaii. I’ll wrap up the season with a little cool down race in November at Ironman Arizona.

Please feel free to share this and future updates with as many people as you wish. This list began with about 85 people and has grown to over 400 with donations coming from Mexico, Austria, Canada and every state in the U.S. Hopefully, you’ll remain a part of this journey if for nothing more than to spread the word or just marvel at the people and puppies that are CCI. If on the other hand you want to be removed from this list, that’s OK as well. Simply reply to this update and I’ll take care of it.

Thanks to all for past, current and future support in helping me make a difference.