Rising Hearts July Blog
HAPPY PRIDE TO ALL OF OUR SACRED ADAPTIVE KIN!
July marks Disability Pride Month, a time to honor the history, achievements, and resilience of the adaptive community. It’s more of a celebration of it’s a powerful reminder of the importance of visibility, accessibility, and equity for all. Join us as we celebrate pride, advocate for change and continue to build a more inclusive world. Check out our Disability Pride 5k. If there is anything you would like to promote please reach out to lex@rising-hearts.org. July is also a time for us to reflect on our busy June and share in some amazing highlights with you!
NEXT AWARENESS + ACTION EVENTS:
+ Disability 5k | 7/1/26 - 7/15/26 | Sign up now!
+ Rising Hearts Run Retreat | July 25 - August 2nd
+ Movie Night and Meet n Greet with Rising Hearts and the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition | July 30th, 5:30pm (with special guests)
+ Run Richmond 16.19 x Team Rising Hearts | Sept. 12th
+ DC Half Marathon x Team Rising Hearts | Sept. 20th
+ Marine Corps Marathon x Team Rising Hearts | Oct. 25th
ABOUT FIRST AMERICA:
A new 6 episode narrative podcast series premiering on June 22, 2026 by Critical Frequency and Pushkin Industries: www.FirstAmerica.info.
This summer, as our country celebrates the 250-year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, First America will tell the true story of how the United States came to be. And how our current political moment is 250 years in the making.
REFLECTIONS:
Not only is it Disability Pride Month - a big celebration is about to happen in this country. 250. There’s conflicting emotions. There’s one side who is patriotic, celebratory, and ignorant, to the truth of how this country came to be. Their responses are “the past is in the past.” Yet, in our view, the past informs the present, and our future. Yes, celebrate. Be part of the celebrations, however, we hope you reflect on why you’re able to celebrate and understand why many, Black, Brown, Immigrant, Trans, Disabled, aren’t as excited due to historical trauma, lack of access, exclusivity, injustice and a country that is clearing a path for certain people, beliefs and policies that is truly harmful to the people and communities we are part of. So, we ask many of you to take a listen to our friend, Rebecca Nagle, her new podcast, First America. The first episode “Merciless Indian Savages” is available now via Pushkin,
Rebecca is a dear friend of ours and many collaborations and marches through the streets for justice. She’s an award-winning advocate and writer focused on advancing Native rights and ending violence against Native women. Nagle is a citizen of Cherokee Nation and a Two Spirit/Queer woman. She’s also the host of This Land podcast with Crooked Media. Very informative. With many attacks on our education and banned books and changed school curriculums erasing history, and POC voices from the textbooks and narrative, it’s incredibly important to be proactive in our unlearning, and learning. We are leaning into community more than ever, raising funds, doing what we can, showing up where we can, and we are so grateful to be doing it with incredible people. Be sure to listen!
- Rising Hearts
HIGHLIGHT STORY & GRANT OPPORTUNITY
The Scout Bassett Grant, established by The Scout Bassett Fund in partnership with the Women’s Sports Foundation and Athletes for Impact, will provide much-needed financial support to women athletes with disabilities and spotlight these athletes’ extraordinary achievements through original and compelling storytelling.
The Scout Bassett Fund is dedicated to breaking down financial barriers that prevent women athletes with disabilities from reaching their full potential in elite athletic events and competitions while amplifying their stories and remarkable achievements through storytelling.
CONGRATS TO OUR VERY OWN
KARLA ESTUDILLO-FUENTES
CONGRATS TO KARLA FOR GETTING A JOB WITH THE RUNNING INDUSTRY DIVERSITY COALITION!
“I'm really grateful for my running and public health journey that's culminating into this exciting role at the RIDC! I'm looking forward to continuing to learn from my personal advocacy in running through Rising Hearts, The Running Kind, and previously Renew Earth Running to inform the great work that the Running Industry Diversity Coalition has been doing for years. Excited to be part of the team and continuing to make running a better space for all!”
UPCOMING RUNS
Celia, Cal, Jordan, Lex, Magda, and Carolina.
Join Rising Hearts as we celebrate and support our sacred community for Disability Pride Month. Wear Black to show your solidarity and roll, run, dance or walk in solidarity with our sacred kin! This is our 2nd Annual Disability Pride 5k and we hope to raise enough money for organizations in these communities to show our support.
The colors of Disability Pride
Black: Represents the barriers and darkness faced by people with disabilities.
Red: Represents physical disabilities.
Gold: Represents neurodiversity.
White: Represents invisible and undiagnosed disabilities.
Blue: Represents emotional and psychiatric disabilities.
Green: Represents sensory disabilities.
BENEFICIARIES
Born To Adapt: To expand societal awareness around disabilities and to foster spaces where everyone can have access to the transformative power of movement, community, and the great outdoors.
Autistic People of Color Fund: The Autistic People of Color Fund practices redistributive justice and mutual aid by returning and sharing money directly to and with autistic people of color. We provide microgrants to Black, Brown, Native, Asian, and mixed-race people in the autistic community for survival, organizing, leisure, and pleasure. We are committed to the principles of Disability Justice, including leadership by those most impacted, intersectionality, anti-capitalist politics, cross-movement solidarity, interdependence, collective access, and collective liberation. Our work is grounded in commitment to ending extractive economies and building and sustaining generative economies.
BENEFICIARIES
Born To Adapt: To expand societal awareness around disabilities and to foster spaces where everyone can have access to the transformative power of movement, community, and the great outdoors.
Through events that meaningfully invite and unite disabled and non-disabled communities, through partnerships with trail races to expand the sport for adaptive athletes, through workshops and speaking engagements that educate race directors and industry leaders on how to create inclusive communities, and through brand sponsorships that provide direct support to adaptive athletes around the world, Born to Adapt is on a mission to empower everyone to move. Read more about our events, races, and programs.
Origin Story:
Growing up in rural Missouri, Zach Friedley didn’t know any other kids who looked like him. Zach, who was born missing his right leg above the knee, excelled in sports, wrestling competitively throughout his youth and later in his twenties, training as a runner in an unsuccessful attempt to make it as a Team USA Paralympian. By the mid 2010s, Zach had drifted away from competitive sports. But a move across the country, to the coastal mountains of California changed all that.
“I had this epiphany that all these places—mountains, National Parks, beautiful outdoor locations that I had only really ever experienced from behind the window of a car—were within reach. All I needed was my blade and a trail and the whole world opened up.”
In 2019, Zach accepted a last minute invite to the annual trail running festival, Born to Run, and was in awe of what he saw: people from all over the world coming together to experience the power of movement. But he noticed something: there was no one else who looked like him. He was the only disabled person there. It was at this moment that Zach’s vision for what would become Born to Adapt began to coalesce. With the support of BTR founder and race director Luis Escobar, advisors like Eric Orton, and colleagues including Dani Aravich, the Born to Adapt vision has since grown into a movement where every body is considered welcome on trails.
Since 2021, Born to Adapt has worked with race directors and brands on four continents to make trail events more equitable and accessible to runners with disabilities, elevating the visibility and experience of para athletes around the world.
Be sure to check out this film, WE BELONG, screening on tour with the Trail Running Film Festival!
Autistic People of Color Fund: The Autistic People of Color Fund practices redistributive justice and mutual aid by returning and sharing money directly to and with autistic people of color. We provide microgrants to Black, Brown, Native, Asian, and mixed-race people in the autistic community for survival, organizing, leisure, and pleasure. We are committed to the principles of Disability Justice, including leadership by those most impacted, intersectionality, anti-capitalist politics, cross-movement solidarity, interdependence, collective access, and collective liberation. Our work is grounded in commitment to ending extractive economies and building and sustaining generative economies.
SHENANDOAH VALLEY | VIRGINIA COMMUNITY
Join the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and Rising Hearts for a community screening of “In The Dirt” and “Run In Beauty” followed by a community panel with special guests of the films.
Then at 7:30pm, move to Capital Ale House (just around the corner) with us to keep the connections going!
And we are excited to offer up to a $1,000 food/drinks tab on Rising Hearts!
RUN REFLECTIONS
Ashleigh Thompson & Kendall Murie | Charity Bib Runners
The Bear Paw Marathon was an incredible experience! We both achieved personal bests: Kendall ran 35 minutes faster than his first road marathon. Ashleigh finished in 3:26:41, achieving her goal of a sub-3:30 marathon and earning a Boston qualifying time, a goal she’s been working on for almost a year.
Before the race began, we received a blessing from a Rocky Boy Cree Tribal member, setting the tone for a powerful day. The morning was perfect: the mountains were beautiful, the hills were green, and the creeks were flowing with spring water. It was special to experience the landscape and community by running from the Rocky Boy Reservation to Havre, a route Kendall has always wanted to run since growing up in the area.
We are also incredibly grateful to everyone who supported our Rising Hearts fundraiser. Together, we raised $649 from 10 donors! We were able to draw our raffle winners and have notified them of their prizes: a custom art piece by Kendall and a pair of beaded earrings by Ashleigh.
Thank you for helping us represent Rising Hearts. Chi miigwech for your support!
Shayla Manitowabi | Charity Bib Runner
I was initially drawn to this event because I was invited by my friend, Jordan Whetstone, to run the Juneteenth Half Marathon with the Rising Hearts team. Jordan is the founder of Rising Hearts, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to amplifying community voices through kinship, movement, advocacy, and storytelling. The opportunity to bring the team together was made possible through a donation supporting the effort, along with Rising Hearts’ collaboration with Freddie Irby, the Run Juneteenth founder and organizer, to build a growing kinship between Rising Hearts and Run Juneteenth to ensure a fun, community experience,
My takeaway from the day was that I wanted to dive more into the history and purpose of the event. I had the honor of meeting Freddie at the Run In Beauty film screening in partnership with On, where he took part in a post-film panel. Hearing more about his running journey and what inspired him to start the event made the experience even more meaningful.
Shayla Manitowabi pulled an upset to take first place with a time of 1:53:57.
FUNDRAISE FOR RISING HEARTS
We had 11 runners in 2024, turning their passion into purpose! We came close to $15,000 for 2024! Here’s a chance to support our heart work through a different means - running! We hope to find 6 runners for 2025!
2025 RACES ARE OPEN!
WANT TO RACE FOR RISING HEARTS OUTSIDE OF THESE WE HAVE SELECTED?
Not seeing a race you want to run in this list? Check out all of the Wander Project events and choose the “Your Choice” option. They will reach out to learn more about your charity of choice and once you let them know that you’ll be running for Rising Hearts, they will make sure your funds come to support our mission!”
Athletes who want to support Rising Hearts for a race that is not listed, can sign up for any of the events on The Wander Project calendar: https://www.wanderproject.org/event-partners/ and pick 'Your Choice' for charity and then fill out the form to indicate they want to support Rising Hearts: (FAQ page here: https://www.wanderproject.org/athletes/frequently-asked-questions/)
Reach out to us via email, info@rising-hearts.org. Share with us your plans, then we’ll set you up with the link!
Want to run for Rising Hearts?
This is more new for us! We have a givelively link specifically for runners/individuals, who want to raise funds for the heart work we do! If it’s not through our partnership with The Wander Project, or our other partners at CIM or Boston, you can run for Rising Hearts at any race you choose and bring more fun and purpose to your why and the run.
We hope to get 35 Rising Hearts runners! And we have 25 runners now :) With a $36,400 projection of funds raised by the end of the year!
Suggested fundraising limits:
RH Athletes / Community = $500
Open to Community = minimum $800
Perks: RH Singlet, merch, stickers, fuel, and if shoes are needed, we can help you!
PODCASTS
2 Black Runners Podcast
In this episode, Joshua Potts shares his 10 most shocking performances in track and field history to Aaron Potts.
LISTEN HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-IKlGwgzNA