He was told he might never walk again. Now he is raising money for the students who come next.

Kenny White and his sister, Kristyn White Davis, sat in her office on campus this fall. Her brother took the chair beside her desk, and the teasing started within a minute.

Kristyn White Davis is Vice President of Enrollment Management, Marketing, and Extended Studies at CSU Pueblo. She spends much of her year talking with new students and their families about why they should choose this university. She talks about the people who will be there for them. Her brother’s story is a case in point.

In 2023, Kenny White suffered a burst fracture to his C6 vertebra. He woke from emergency surgery paralyzed from the neck down. Over the following months, through a rehabilitation process he still calls the hardest work of his life, he regained the use of his legs. His wife encouraged him to run again. He decided that if he was going to run, he would build something around it. He named the result Break Your Neck: Walk, Run, or Roll.

The race returned to CSU Pueblo in September, with 675 participants registered. Walkers, runners and riders on bikes all lined up together. The course was lined with CSU Pueblo student-athletes who cheered for everyone who passed, regardless of how fast they moved.

Kenny’s connection to the campus began long before the accident. He attended basketball and baseball camps here as a child. He took guitar and piano lessons on campus and performed in theater productions, though he is quick to say his sister got the lead roles. He also completed part of an MBA at CSU Pueblo before life got in the way.

What brought him back was his medical care. During his treatment, which took him from UC Health to Craig Hospital and back, he kept meeting nurses who had trained at CSU Pueblo. “I could not believe the reach of this university,” he says. When Kenny decided to build a race, the campus was the obvious place for it.

Todd Kelly, President and CEO of the CSU Pueblo Foundation, remembers the packet of photos Kenny put together for sponsors after the first year. One showed his wife and daughters. One showed the ThunderWolf mascot. One showed Kenny and Kelly coming down the road together near the finish. “The moment was kind of special,” Kelly says, “and being able to share that, with the student athletes cheering him on, was kind of cool.”

The race has grown quickly. The first year drew more than 300 participants. The second year drew more than 500. Proceeds are split among three causes: the Rahul Singh Nursing Scholarship [CONFIRM: official scholarship name], spinal cord injury research at Craig Hospital through a donation and a matching grant, and CSU Pueblo Track and Field. Total support raised through the event has now passed $75,000. This year, another $43,000 came in through donations and sponsorships.

The money matters, but the people who receive it matter more to Kenny. In October, he attended the Friends and Scholars Luncheon, hosted by the CSU Pueblo Foundation. The luncheon honors scholarship recipients alongside the donors who make those awards possible. Kenny sat in a room full of students whose tuition and college expenses had been eased by money he helped raise. The figures he had seen on spreadsheets became faces, names and handshakes.

Kristyn also sees the same connection in her work. “It reinforces what I tell students and families,” she says. “You’re joining a community of people invested in your success.” She has worked at the university for years, and she is active in the Pueblo community beyond campus. She says her family has always put gratitude ahead of complaint. They also believe that what they receive comes with an obligation to give back.

Kenny measures his progress in small moments now. Not long ago, he held his 6-year-old daughter’s bike steady while she climbed on. “I’m filled with so much gratitude for just being able to be a dad,” he says.

Kenny credits the sponsors who stepped forward without being asked after his story spread. He credits the donors who give $10 or $1,000 and see their names on a shirt either way. Kelly credits the crowd on the course, and the student-athletes who return each year.

“Everybody has their own struggles,” Kenny says. “Everybody carries scars. Life isn’t perfect, but it sure is beautiful.”