Last year, the Jim Collins Foundation gave away its first grant to Drew Lodi, a transgender man on Medicaid who lacked the ability to pay for surgery out-of-pocket. Drew was so determined to obtain the treatment he needed that he saved literally every nickel he could by collecting cans towards his surgery expense. A year later, Drew is back on his feet and is currently training for the Spartan Sprint to raise money and pass on the hope that the Jim Collins Foundation gave him.
“The freedom I find in post surgery is a place I didn’t know existed,” says Lodi. “I am comfortable now in my body and as a result, I lost weight and started to run again. I haven’t run since the late 1980s and it was an emotional moment of aliveness.”