24-foot-tall slides, swinging anchor bars, and barbed wire crawls are just a few of the obstacles that Inspired Vets business resource group (BRG) team members and allies tackled in the 5-mile Savage Race on September 21 in Dallas, Georgia. Their participation raised more than $12,000 for United Through Reading, a non-profit partner committed to connecting deployed military families separated by distance.

“As a veteran, you remember the challenge of not being able to see your family for weeks or months due to deployments,” says Senior Vice President of Brand Supply Chain and U.S. Army Veteran Joel Blanchard. “United Through Reading has been there for deployed military members for more than 35 years, creating a comforting connection for families when it may otherwise seem impossible.”

Every year, more than 100,000 military parents deploy, leaving nearly 25,000 children at home and millions of bedtime stories left untold. To help, United Through Reading was founded in 1989 with the mission to unite parents with their families through story time video recordings, which it has done for 3.3 million military family members across all branches of the military.

For Inspired Vets BRG members and other Atlanta-based team members, the nearby Savage Race provided the perfect opportunity to unite for a great cause and connect with one another as they jumped, dodged, and raced through an extreme obstacle course together in service of deployed military members.

“This is the first time we’ve participated in a race as Inspire,” says Inspire Vice President of Financial Management York Rasmusson. “Going as a group, we stay together and take each obstacle together – all are fun, but some are made so you cannot do it alone, and that’s the whole point. If you have a hard time getting through, you know to put a hand down to help the next person up.”

To learn more about how we’re putting people first in the communities we work and serve, visit Inspire’s Impact site.