Cooperative Living March/April 2016 - 18

brain injury, he lost all of his social skills,
so doing these things is socially as well as
physically therapeutic for him. Because
of his condition, he never gets fatigued,
never gets hungry or thirsty, and sleeps
very little. Keeping up with him is
physically exhausting. So the bike rides
are wonderful for him. He just needs to
be in a group. "
Participation in these physical
activities, in a group setting, would be
ideal therapy for easing him back into
normal life situations. Finding a way to
make this happen became Kay's mission.
" I put a post on Facebook to see if
there was anyone willing to participate in
a triathlon with Humberto, and through
Facebook found a guy in the Army,
James Brown, who said he'd help, " Kay
notes. " So we went and did the triathlon
in Wilmington, North Carolina, together,
and it was great. This happened the
fourth year after the accident. "
Humberto and Kay were high school
sweethearts and have been married 26
years. They have three children, ages 18,
21 and 24. Kay worked as a finance
secretary at a North Carolina middle
school before Humberto's accident. " He's
what I do now, " she says with a smile and
without a trace of hesitation.
Kay accompanies Humberto on all of
his sports outings. She doesn't
participate, but she organizes the trips
and watches out for Humberto's safety.
After that first triathlon in
Wilmington, Kay and Humberto met
Mike Thomas, who is affiliated with Ride
2 Recovery. Although created to help
injured service personnel, Ride 2
Recovery was expanded to include
'It was truly a life
changer for me, because
I could really feel God's
love through their
actions ... the last six
years have been the
hardest thing I've ever
been through.'
injured policemen, firefighters and
other first responders. Humberto rode
for three of the five days in the 2014
Memorial Challenge.
" Ride 2 Recovery leaves no one
behind, " says Kay. " After all those years
looking for a group that would
accommodate Humberto and the
difficulties he experiences because of his
injuries, we'd found a place for him. It
was wonderful to see all those veterans
helping him. And I told Humberto, we
need to walk through the doors that
God opens. "
The door was opened wide at the
2015 Memorial Challenge. The ride
started in Washington, D.C., on
Memorial Day, and ended in Virginia
Beach five days later. With the help of
his Ride 2 Recovery family, Humberto
rode all five days.
Greg White, a lifelong athlete and
triathlon enthusiast, had entered the
2015 ride as a part of Virginia electric
cooperatives' support for disabled veterans
and first responders.
" Right after I became Virginia's
representative on the board of directors of
our National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association (NRECA), one of its senior
vice presidents, Peter Baxter, learned that I
was a bicycling enthusiast and invited me
to ride one day with the bikers on the
Memorial Challenge, " Greg recalls. " Peter
had been involved in NRECA's support of
the Ride 2 Recovery group and thought as
a board member I would be interested.
After that one-day ride in 2014, I decided
I wanted to get involved in helping this
organization and ride longer the following
year, in 2015. That's when I met Humberto
and Kay. "
After the 2015 Memorial Challenge,
Greg contacted the Reynas and invited
them to come and stay with him and his
wife, Carolyn, at their home in
Tappahannock, to participate in a triathlon
at nearby Naylor's Beach.
" We took Greg up on his offer, and he
and Carolyn were so wonderfully kind and
hospitable. It was the beginning of a warm,
special friendship, " notes Kay.
" It was through their friendship and
really at that very point when they invited
us in, as strangers, that I felt God was
reassuring me personally that I was going
to be okay and that we were going to make
it through this, " she continues. " It was
truly a life changer for me, because I could
really feel God's love through their actions
... the last six years have been the hardest
thing I've ever been through. "
Humberto heads out on his special
recumbent bike in the bicycling segment.
16 | Cooperative Living | March-April 2016
Greg nears the finish line in the bicycling
segment of the triathlon.
Humberto after the final running
segment of the triathlon.
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Cooperative Living March/April 2016

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