We are wrapping up one of the coolest Keep A Breast Outreach events to come from two amazing and courageous gentlemen, Wyatt Welter and Jerold Gaches. These two made a huge impact on the lives that they have met through their 2,400 mile mission to Southern California to help raise awareness of breast cancer. They are incredible young men and such an inspiration! Below, Wyatt tells us about their journey and why they chose Keep A Breast to work with for this expedition!
We are so thankful to have worked with them on this and look forward to working with them next year!
If you would like to donate to their mission, you may do so here.
You can also check out their website here.
Erica & KAB
“I have always been an overly caring person since I can remember, I’ve had a multitude of events that I have experienced throughout my life and these events have created a humble being within me. I know what its like to have it hard, to feel the pain of loss, and to understand how helpless it can seem. I have taken it upon myself to find a way that I could help people on a large scale, with the ideas both my friend and I came up with, we manifested into what we now call World Alive. World Alive is merely an idea that our world is truly alive, and that we as the human race are the only beings that have certain control of the world through the actions we decide to take. Much like Gaia, the primordial Earth goddess of ancient greek religion, it was then that the thought our world was truly alive meant that the people of the Earth were subject to Gaia for her life giving principals. In this thought or idea, we as the human race become the shephards of our planet.
Cancer is to Jerold and I as a black hole is to space and time. Its a negative void that is devestating so many families around the world. Its something that was familiar to both Jerold and I, we both share experiencing loss and pain caused from a form of cancer. After I had left the military I met a young philipino girl who I eventually got engaged to. Though we are no longer together, the hardships she had to face from the time I met her at age 19 were tramatic, she was genetically at risk for breast cancer and I watched as just the possibility of her having it tore her life apart. It affected me having been so close to her and caring for her so deeply, that it remained a continuous thought in my head for years and I had to do something to help. So with this steaming from my ears, Jerold took his motivation to help and I took mine and collectively we decided we needed to join forces with Keep A Breast to do something epic. We knew that KAB targeted the younger crowd and it really matched up with our beliefs in World Alive. So we picked
up the one sport we had fun with the most which was Longboarding and decided to sell our vehicles, leave our
homes, purchase some outdoor gear, and up and longboard from our hometown, Whitewater, WI, to where the
foundation Keep A Breast was located, Carlsbad, CA. Of course it took a little more planning then that. We actualy had planned this for nearly a year, all the while being told by our peers that we wouldnt make it.
Cancer is to Jerold and I as a black hole is to space and time.
I knew in my heart that both of us would, regardless what anyone else said. I told Jerold I was glad I was going with him rather than anyone else because I believed in the both of us. We have some fire in us, and that fire was bursting at its seems, we had to get it out. This just seemed the best way to do it. We wanted to show people that its mind over matter, and that staying positive even in the most grim of times, nothing can stand in your way.
The first week of the journey I thought for a moment Jerold was going to quit he looked so bad. But he soldiered on until I thought I was gonna quit, I litterally thought a few times that there would be no way I could keep going. I completely blew out my left achilies tenden the second week and the pain was so much that I could hardly walk. I forced myself to learn how to use the other foot to push off and balance with my hurt ankle, and because of this Jerold did something amazing as well, he decided that if I had to learn to push off the other foot, that he would make himself learn too so that we could both push through it together, making it a team effort. Thats the way it went all 2,400 miles through the humidity, the rain , the mountains, the creepy neighborhoods, the massive storms, and the wipe outs, etc, etc.
We threw all difficulty aside with laughing over the trouble we faced, we knew it was going to be rough from the start, and we told ourselves that we had to hold onto the thought we first started with, that there are people out there who dont have the chance to do something like this, so we must do it for them. Many times I would think about my ex fiance, and that alone kept me going on most days. There wasnt all that much bickering between the two of us at all, we were a team, we knew what we had to do, and we did it, together! We both served in the military so we both knew what it was like to have our bodies hurt, really hurt, but the difficulties we faced on this trek, far surpassed anything we had ever experienced before, even more so than the tour I made in Afghanistan.
Bottom line is, we felt and still feel that we have an obligation to our planet, and to the people living on it. We are already working on the plans for our next trek which we plan on longboarding from the eastern coast of Canada to the very tip of Florida to conquer the world record. Between then and now we hope to obtain our 501c3 not for profit to attach to our idea, and eventually incorporate an environmental educational program, targeting elementary school students, to help them grow to become more Earth conscious,and hopefully inspired by our actions to do something great themselves one day. If we can accomplish more than that, then I say that it is merely frosting on the cake, and we love frosting! We hope to cover the world with it, and Make It Glow! ” – Wyatt Welter
Donate to their mission here.
Check out their website here.
