Our family developed the Finish Strong Foundation after Mike died in 2018 for three main reasons:
The first reason was to continue Mike’s legacy of being his children’s biggest cheerleader, supporter, and coach in their multiple competitive sports. He rarely missed a game or competition. He was either the intense dad in the stands with the inability to stay still or quiet for too long …..or he was the dad volunteering his time to help coach and keep the team positive often bribing them treats or dollar bills when they did good.
Mike understood that sports or other activities help children to build lifelong friendships, develop communication skills, build self-esteem, develop good character, teach them self-discipline, keep them healthy, limit them from overexposure to screen time, build a strong work ethic, and develop the ability to work positively with others.
The second reason we developed the foundation was to continue Mike’s legacy of supporting other young athletes financially and emotionally when their own families were unable. Because Mike did not get to play sports as a child due to his own family’s financial struggles, he never wanted any child to miss out because of something beyond their control like financial instability. He often offered to help pay for equipment or fees if he heard someone was struggling. He offered for athletes to travel with us and pay for hotel rooms for out-of-town competitions. He even offered emotional support to kids who were angry because of their family struggles… he too had been one of those kids who came from a struggling home.
The third reason we developed the foundation and also the reason for the specific criteria of it. Our family wants to pay forward what was done for us when Mike was hurt in the JJ’s Explosion on the Plaza in 2013. Mike was hurt and burned badly and spent over two months in the burn unit, weeks in in-patient rehab, and months in the Rehab Institute of KC trying to learn how to walk again and live again. During that time, both of us were out of work and funds were very limited. Thankfully friends, family, our sports families, and the community all helped pitch in to be sure our two children could continue in their competitive sports while we were just trying to survive. Our main priority during our very trying time was to keep normalcy in our children’s lives as much as possible. Sports was where their friends were. It was where we knew they would find support from their coaches. They both had worked very hard to set goals and achieve goals and we did not want them to have to give up something so important to them just because we could not afford it at the time.
Our main goal of the foundation is to help support young athletes so they can continue the sports they love even when a sudden illness, injury, death, or other unexpected traumatic event affects their families financially. If you know an athlete that meets our criteria and could benefit from our foundation please contact us! We are a relatively small foundation at this time but as long as we have funds in the Foundation, we are happy to help!
We are also always looking for more ways to grow funds in the Finish Strong Foundation. The more donations we get into the foundation account, the more athletes we can help. If you or someone you know are interested in donating, please contact us.