EE Newsletter: August 31, 2015
Friends:
Two items of note in
August. The first is that we have a new student in a four-year college:
Isi Ibarra headed off to West Virginia University last week, where
she’ll be entering as a junior on a track scholarship. Isi has been at
Riverside Community College the past two years, where she was a star on
the track team. Remember the photo on the left of Isi and Cherie running
together during summer training a lifetime ago? Well, she’s all grown up
now, and on the right is a photo of her on campus with her new coach.
On the subject of our
college students: Marlene Samano has decided to spend another year at
UCSD doing lab work at the invitation of one of her professors. Nik
Keller, who graduated from there two years ago and is now working for a
medical supply company, got a huge promotion and is in the process of
opening a new office for the company. Josh Rodriguez and Jesus Soto both
had great first years at UC San Bernardino, as did Archi Lai at UCLA, and
all start their sophomore classes in three weeks. Miguel Ibarra (Isi’s
brother) will be graduating from there this year, and Louisa Moreno
(sister of Anthony and Joseph) is starting her senior year at UC Berkeley.
Also: We’ve got two kids starting their senior years in high school who
will be eligible for good colleges next year, so keep your wallets handy.
Remember Cherie’s promise to every EE kid: “Your job is to get into
college; ours is to figure out how to pay for it.”
The second item is
that we held our annual “Race for CAF” event yesterday. As we do every
year, the kids train during the summer and then compete to see which five
get to spend a weekend in San Diego in October participating in the
Challenged Athletes Foundation Triathlon
Challenge, one of our favorite events of the year. CAF was co-founded
by our longtime buddy and “Friend of EE” Bob Babbitt; they’ve raised
upwards of $50 million since 1997 helping physically challenged people not
only participate in sports but compete. (Read more here.)
Sorry we don’t have
photos of the kids actually running, but your humble photographer here ran
with them. Okay, not “with” them, exactly, since I started fifteen
minutes before they did and got passed by every single one. But, whatever.
Cherie gave each of
the winners one of the medals she won in 2015, including the USAT National
Championship medal she earned in Milwaukee three weeks ago. It was a
thrilling moment for them.
From left to right:
Israel, Arian, Eric, Abbie (with the USAT championship medal), and
Abbie’s brother Sam.
All the kids did a
great job, and each received a finisher’s medal from the supply of
hundreds that were donated by many of you.
September is typically
slow for the program as Cherie counts down towards the Ironman World
Championship, but the rest of 2015 will see CAF Oct. 17-18, the Palm
Springs Tram Road Challenge on Oct. 24, HITS triathlon series in La Quinta
Dec. 5-6 (with training for the kids in November), the Tinsel Tri on
December 12, Santa Paws 5K on December 19, and EE’s annual Christmas
& Awards Party in Loma Linda on December 20.
-lee