Find Your Tribe...Love Them Hard: Combat for Cooper

While it is easy (and accurate) to view pediatric cancer as a struggle of physical stamina, emotional fortitude and patience, we have also been surprised at the surreal ability of this disease to bring out the goodness of those around you.  Cancer is one of those things that changes your life and the lives of those of those around you.  There are the obvious things to change like your daily life, how you view problems, but the thing that has really changed for us is how we see others.  Not just others as in friends and family, but OTHERS as in strangers, others of different faiths, others of different walks of life.

 Cooper got to come in just for a minute and say hi and thank everyone! He was definitely the star of the show!

 Coop with all of the instructors

 Cooper back with the lovely and wonderful Ms. Jill!!!!!

Cooper with his buddy and neighbor Brett....Special thanks to Brett's mom, Michelle for taking all of the pictures!

In this light, we were absolutely humbled, honored and blessed when our local gym approached us regarding Cooper.  We routinely take part in a high-intensity cardio kickboxing group fitness class called BodyCombat (highly recommended if you need some anger management or stress relief).  When we learned of Cooper's diagnosis, this class became an outlet for both Kristy and I. This is where we go to vent!

Our normal instructor asked us if we would be ok with a special BodyCombat class dedicated to Cooper called CombatForCooper.  She wanted to do this class as a way to raise awareness of this illness and to help support Kristy and me.  Needless to say, we were honored to accept this generosity.  For the following 2 months, the gym and the instructors (now six of them were on board) ran with this idea.

The outcome was something we will never forget...

Nearly 100 people (unsure of actual count) showed up in support of our family!  Many of these amazing individuals have never met Kristy, Cooper or me, but took it upon themselves to sacrifice a beautiful Saturday in support of Cooper.  As I said before - six of the Combat instructors across multiple gym locations answered the call to motivate and lead the event, the gym itself sponsored it, the mayor of Frederick spoke along with the county Alderman and sheriff - basically it felt like the entire Frederick community was quite literally fighting along with us!

 Kelly, who is one of the most wonderful humans we know! Thank you for all you did!

The most amazing part was the unyielding generosity.  As I said, many of these people had never met us, and those who did know us, primarily know us from the gym (casual and friendly "hello's" exchanged, but nothing beyond that), but that did not stop them from showering us with support.  Donations of personal funds, sporting tickets, gift baskets and other items were raffled off.  This is in addition to the money that was raised by our amazing instructor for #combatforcooper T-Shirts and a completely selfless and amazingly generous donation from the Frederick Muslim Community!

I guess this is all a very long winded way of saying, this event was the pinnacle of community and embodiment of support.  The financial support alone was amazing and hugely appreciated!  Medical bills, gas, meals, medication, costs for lost healthcare, and job wages lost most definitely add up. More importantly, this was the most positive and uplifting day our family has had in months.

When we came home we both discussed how we were in shock and awe of the support. This event was the complete opposite of what we felt on diagnosis night. That night, we felt as if the world was against us, as if we had lost everything. At combat, we felt like we had the world behind us and it gave us such hope being surrounded by the most positive and most wonderfully supportive people you will ever meet. In these situations people most definitely rally together to provide support for those in need. It restores your faith in humanity. This class and these people have been huge for us. Every single person is positive, judgement free, and is behind us 100% and for that we are eternally grateful.