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 calls the hardest work of his life, he regained the use of his legs. His wife encouraged it. The results? The Break Your Neck: Walk, Run, or Roll.

The race returned to CSU Pueblo in September with 675 participants registered this year.

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 other priorities took his attention elsewhere.

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 organization,” he says. His wife played volleyball for university. His sister moved from the business school into her current role. When Kenny decided to build a race, the campus was an 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. “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 into three causes: the Rahul Singh Nursing Scholarship, 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.

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 had been eased by money he helped raise. The figures he had seen on spreadsheets became faces, names and handshakes.

Kristyn 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’s own recovery required a second operation. Training for the race put stress on the hardware from his first spinal fusion, and the screw at his T1 vertebra broke. His doctor warned him about the risk of losing function over time. In December 2025, Kenny had a second operation that extended the fusion from T1 down to T4. He wore a neck brace for more than 90 days, sleeping and showering in it. The recovery was hard in a different way than the first injury, Kenny said. It also straightened his spine and relieved pressure that had caused pain for years, which gave him increased mobility compared to before the accident.

He 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. Kelly also 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.”