When it comes to success stories in the world of marketing one of the most remarkable would be that of Col. Harlan Sanders the Colonel behind Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Now, in today’s day and age you will see a multitude of Kentucky Fried Chicken shops on street corners around the world. Most would assume that this means that the founder of the restaurant chain simply came up with a very good tasting recipe, went into business and made a fortune. Hey, the product was a great chicken recipe and the world responded positively. What’s more to know? Well, there is a lot more to know because it provides a lesson as to why one should never, EVER give up when faced with adversity. You see, no one really wanted anything to do with Col Sanders’ recipe when he first debut it in the late 1960’s.

Col. Sanders was a fellow who really loved to share his fried chicken recipe. He had a lot of positive influence from those who tasted the chicken. Now, the Colonel was retired and up in age and when most people who believed in the sanctimony of retirement the Colonel opted to sell the world on his cool new chicken recipe. With little in terms of means at his disposal Colonel Sanders traveled door to door to restaurants all over his local area. He wanted to partner with someone to help promote his chicken recipe. Needless to say, he was met with little enthusiasm. In fact, most assumed he was little more than a crank! While most would have given up under such circumstances the Colonel did not let it get him down. He persevered until he would hear that magic yes that would skyrocket his business. Of course, as history has shown he found someone who had faith in his recipe and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born.

Most people would have probably gotten extremely discouraged at the first instance of rejection. This would be a common reaction among the average person. Thankfully, the colonel was far from an average person or achiever and he continued on in the face of rejection. This should prove as a wonderful tale to anyone who is contemplating quitting when things are tough because it clearly shows that great things can happen if one persists with one’s dreams and never loses confidence.

That is a success story for us all…even if it is ultimately about fried chicken!

As the father of a child born with Dandy-Walker Syndrome, I can say that once we get past the mourning of our child’s disabilities (which unfortunately numerous parents never do); we are constantly amazed by the things they are not limited to. We find ourselves battling within, trying to push them to, and beyond their limits, and all the while allowing them to realize there really are no limits. All too often I have quarreled with family members, in-laws, school teachers and even doctors who constantly tell my daughter, “you can’t do that, let me do it for you”. There is always a little voice inside my head screaming at them, “Stop telling her she can’t do that! Help her do it for herself. She already has a physical disability, why do you want to impose an emotional disability as well!?”

Twelve years ago, a new “all-encompassing” sport was developed here in Switzerland by a small group of friends with family members with varied disabilities. The idea behind the game is to allow persons with, and without disabilities to compete in a sport based on the very ideals of “Fair-play”. Taking a little from Handball and a little of Football (Soccer for Americans) RAFROBALL was created. The name was created from the names of its founders, Thierry RApillard, Lionel and Jonas FROssard and Prince BALLestraz.

The philosophy and principals are very simple;

· allow everyone, with or without a disability to participate in sport and to have fun;

· to respect the spirit of sports, team spirit, fair-play, equality and friendship;

· to help the non disabled understand and appreciate disabilities;

· to promote integration between the disabled world and the non-disabled world.

Every player’s ability or disability is taken into consideration when forging their position on the team. The teams are composed of 5 players on each side. All non-disabled players are required to play in a wheel-chair. The severely disabled wheel-chair bound, and blind team members are allow a “motor”, an able bodied person to move them on the court and act as “surrogate” in catching or blocking the ball, yet the player has to do the passing. The teams are allowed 1 “walker” (not in a chair).

To explain in detail how the game is played would be a little tedious perhaps for a short article whose purpose is to explain “The Boundary Breaker”, suffice to say that there are currently 7 teams in the Federation that play in the Championship tournaments. It has been a long road getting to where we are today, and in the end we all have a great deal of fun. I would invite you to visit the website (only in French, with a little German thrown in there for the fun of it) www.rafroball.ch

Far too many people in our society that do not have any discernable disabilities are bound and disabled by their fear and misunderstanding of those who do have disabilities.

This month’s Boundary Breakers are all the Rafroballers: people learning, growing and integrating, working together to break their physical and emotional boundaries.

James Healey

Webmaster

Personally, I dedicate this to my daughter and my son. We have been breaking our own boundaries for 16 years now.

As we always say at our foundation, there are a plethora of different boundaries (I.e. financial, spiritual, emotional & physical) however MOST folks think of physical boundaries. Well for now, let's stick with this & pick out a few unique individuals who have definitely BROKEN what most sane people think of a physical boundary.

We will use running. For many, running a loal 5K is a breakthrough, for others it is the marathon; the "ultimate running distance". - Or is it? There is a group of runners who chose to run ulra-marathons or a race distance in excess of the 26.2 miles. We at Know No Boundaries know this well as we have participated in distances of 50K, 50 miles & most recently 100 miles. WE talk the talk AND walk the walk of breaking our own boundaries. In this group of ultra runners, there is an even smaller group who run far & beyond what is thought of as "long".

Earlier this month, the frist running of the Rouge-Orleans Relay was held. It is a 126.2 mile ultramarathon & relay from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Not only could teams enter as a relay, but there was also a solo category.

The RO 126.2 ran along the Mississippi River on the levee parallel to the river. Mostly gravel, but some pavement & grass near the end.

Five brave souls from Tulsa, Oklahoma braved the distance; (2) as a relay team & (3) as solo runners.

Ken Childress, Kathy Hoover & Bill Ford ran in the solo category while Roman Broyles & Caroline Glynn ran as a relay.

Troopers - for sure; determined - definitely; boundary breakers - no question!

Through hard rains, wind & TWO nights of no sleep, these (5) warrior runners not only broke typical boundaries of running a marathon, but broke the boundary's boundary.

Kathy, Caroline, Ken, Bill & Roman are our Boundary Breakers of the Month for March 2011.

Good thing that the race ended in New Orleans just at the start of Mardi Gras.

As always, YOU decide what you can & cannot achieve so decide to break through those boundaries that are holding you back to be, do & become all that God has planned for you.

God Bless;

Ken

Lisa Smith-Batchen is our Boundary Breaker of the month for January 2011.

She ran 50 miles in all of the 50 states in 62 days in order to raise awareness & money for her foundation - Running Hope to America. The proceeds to go to AIDS Orphans Rising.

During these 62 days, the 12 days that she did not run were travel days...she had to fly to Hawaii, Alaska and more. It was by the Grace of God that she was able to finish on the 62nd day.

Why: Lisa turned 50 last Sept and wanted to do something...it was the 100th anniversary of the organization she had raised money for the orphans.

50 miles 50 states made 100:)

62 days: 62 miles is a 100k and was her favorite distance to run. All the number have great meaning to her.

Lisa started running on April 19th 2010 and finished on June 19th 2010

State 23 was Texas...she was running with a group of people and was talking looking to the right. Her left foot stepped in a very small pot hole and twisted. By the end of the day her foot was very swollen and painful. It was sprained pretty bad. Of course she iced and iced it but it was not possible to rest. She made a choice and prayed a great deal about it. If she could handle the pain of her foot then she would of course carry on. She was close to half way through the run and was committed. She never complained about her foot as much as one would want to!:) Most people would call it "good" and head for the house to rest. NOT LISA.

Three different Doctors looked at her foot during the last 27 states and they all told her the best option would be to stop running.

Her words back were "tell me something I can do".
She was sure she could handle the pain..with each step she grew closer to God and prayed for strength to continue because not even 1% of her ever had a thought or idea to stop. She thought of all the less fortunate children, the orphans they were raisning money for. Lisa thought about how much suffering they go through day after day just for food and clothing.

The pain of her foot was something hard to explain to anyone..(it hurt like hell)...(we have no idea what hell feels or looks like but it was painful.)

One step, one breath, one moment and one day at a time was how she went about it all the way to the very last day. With 2,450 miles under my feet she sat the night before with her friend and Orthopedic surgeon friend Dr. Mo Brown. He looked at her foot and said.."Oh my God Lisa how have you been running on your foot."

Lisa simply said, "By the grace of God". "If God wanted to knock me down and out I would not have been able to continue, I surrendered it all up to him, everything!"
Dr. Mo then said, "well Lisa you have 50 miles left, I don't think your foot is going o make it to the finish line."

She said, "Dr. Mo..I don't think God brought me this far not to have me finish but if he did then my foot will give out because I am in the BEST shape of my life and the only pain I have is this left foot."

Dr. Mo said..."Lisa when you see the finish line, The Spud Drive In Movie Theather I want you to run like hell."

As she ran the last miles towards the finish, magic and miracles were happening...To the right of her in a car on the road she could see Dr. Mo driving his car waiting for her foot to blow up...it never did:)

At the end, she fell to my knees, cried, threw her arms into the air and gave thanks to God for allowing her o complete her jounrney though America.

Following her epic journey, for 6 months she wore a black boot or hard cast to see if the foot would heal...it did not heal. So 8 months later 2 weeks out of getting my cast recoved...On Dec. 27th she had magor foot surgery to remove a bone and repair torn tendons.

After 4 weeks of non weight bearing and getting good with the crutches, LisaI decided it was time to start to do something physical..she had enough time sitting around, feeling depressed! She made small goals for myself.

Every other day she was going to go 200 yards outside with my crutches...and build up to any mile number by 200 yards every other day until the cast and crutches are gone.

February 18th..she was up to 2.8 miles. This took her about 1.5 hours. It was exhausting to say he least.

Come on now. how may of us would try to get in "miles" on crutches after foot surgery?

God willing, Lisa will be at the starting line on July 11th for her 10th Badwater 135 mile run.

You Go Girl & contiue to "break boundaries.