Thank you! (TACP 24 Hour Run Challenge)

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Cody Canfield
  • 169th Air Support Operations Squadron
Good Morning,

First and foremost I want to thank everyone who in some way helped support the TACP 24 Hour Run Challenge. Whether you passed along information on this event, recruited people to run, donated, or did all the above, you guys blew it out of the water. For Peoria's first annual TACP 24 Hour Run Challenge, I could not have asked for a better turnout.

Team Peoria raised a total of $8,190.00 crushing our goal of $3,000.00. The event isn't over either, we are still taking donations through our Fundly web site which you can access through the link below. Since the start, we have been going back and forth with Fort Hood for first place and would love to see a win for the Guard Community. The TACP Association has received a total of $44,622 as of this morning from all the TACP units combined, again blowing there goal of $30,000.00 out of the water.

Team Peoria started the TACP 24 Hour Run Challenge at 1500 Thursday March 28th going through the night until 1500 on Friday the 29th of March. This was especially important to Team Peoria as it was the 10th anniversary of SSgt Jake Frazier's death. We had a total of 62 runners here in Peoria and other remote locations around the world, such as Washington D.C., Kentucky, Denver and Afghanistan. The Track here at the 182 AW was 1.25 miles rapping around the perimeter. From these 62 runners, Team Peoria was able to accomplish 161.75 miles in the 24 hour period. With the last hour remaining, 6 TACP members from the 169 ASOS flipped a tracker tire 1.25 miles for the last hour in remembrance of SSgt Jake Frazier.

All the proceeds from this event go directly to the TACP Association. One of the many things the TACP Association has done was giving SrA Mike Malarsie a seeing eye dog. If that name doesn't ring a bell, he was the ROMAD for SrA Bradley Smith who was KIA on 03 January 2010 in Afghanistan. As many of you know, we operate as a two man team: a JTAC and ROMAD. On that day SrA Bradley Smith and SrA Mike Malarsie came under heavy fire and fell into a three sided ambush. A roadside bomb triggered the ambush injuring members of his platoon they were serving with. SrA Bradley Smith volunteered to
accompany the platoon medic to help treat and retrieve the wounded service members. While SrA Bradley Smith was retrieving his wounded team member, a secondary bomb detonated, claiming his life. From that fire fight, SrA Mike Malarsie took excessive fragmentation to the face making him legally blind.  The TACP Association assisted SrA Mike Malarsie with his hospital bills and paid for his seeing eye dog. This is the type of Association you helped by donating, so I thank you. If you are interested in other fallen TACP members, what the Association does, or any other information visit www.usaftacp.org.

I would also like to thank the following sponsors for donating:
MetaVR
Battlespace Simulations
Benchmark Construction
Fitness America-Bartonville/East Peoria
Crossfit Bloomington-Normal
Willow Lane Farm
Hammers Bar & Grill
Just For Fun Games
The Fox Pub & Café
Just Cuz DJ Entertainment & Lighting
Four Seasons Gutter Protection Siding & Window
Cluskey& Cochran Land Surveying, LLC
Elmwood Insurance Agency
Cochran Collision Center

Fundly will be open for donations till 19 April 2013, and make sure you donate to Team Peoria. We will also be excepting checks and cash here at the ASOS till then as well.

http://fundly.com/daniel-curtin-24hourchallenge

If this email doesn't get to all the supporters, please help me by forwarding this on to them. Team Peoria and myself really appreciated all the support and I want to make sure they are thanked. Supporters/Runners, please let me know T-shirt sizes so I can get you the appropriate size. They should be in today, sorry about the wait.

Cody "MONGO" Canfield, SRA
169 ASOS/ TACP/JTAC