Hello there, its Riggs writing this. You know how passionate I am about mental health - especially MEN'S mental health. You also know how I'm an avid skydiver. Two of my passions collide into one unique event. Check out my sky buddy Rian who's using some heavy things that have happened in his life to raise awareness and get people to speak out.
I lifted this from his GoFundMe page:
I’m Rian, and I’m single-minded in saving lives while single-handedly going to set the Skydiving World Record…no matter how much it's gonna hurt. I'll explain that part below…
My name is Rian Kanouff and I’m on a mission. I’m a motivational speaker, a skydiving and wind tunnel coach and an extreme sports athlete from Omaha.
My mission is to raise awareness about the mental health crisis and suffering in our community. Our neighbors have been severely impacted by the lack of resources to meet the growing mental health demands over the past year as the pandemic has increased the feeling of isolation and impacts of depression among our community. Hopelessness and burnout has rapidly spread as the sense of community and commonality have been more and more difficult to achieve. Under the COVID-19 health crisis, with its encouraged separation and the need to safely disconnect from each other, so many in our community have been acutely, and often unexpectedly, struggling to cope and balance the change. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for men ages 20-44 according to the CDC.
Over the past year, many of our teammates, friends, family, and neighbors have chosen to end their lives, often struggling to find resources and treatment for the growing mental health concerns.
I have experienced this first hand with the loss of several people who were extremely close to me due to untreated mental health issues.
In the span of one year, these losses included my grandfather- a man I truly looked up to and respected; my childhood best friend - who was a respected former Paratrooper and Army Ranger; my first skydiving student - who grew to become one of us and one of my best friends, and just last week, a former member of my skydive club.
My friend was very close to his 100th skydive. Traditionally in the skydive community, your 100th jump is made naked!
He unfortunately never got to make that skydive.
Experiencing this and other losses so close to my community and heart, has encouraged or rather REQUIRED me to act immediately and with reckless abandon… “I CAN AND MUST DO SOMETHING!”
With that reckless abandon, I leaned heavily on my passions to start to solicit attention and change. I used skydiving as my platform to get some attention...actually, a lot of attention.
With Movember I found a home and common ground to bring awareness to the growing need for mental health resources. The Movember Foundation is a worldwide movement to bring change and resources specifically to male health issues including mental health. I could not be more excited to partner with this adventurous team to continue to advocate for change!
We have teamed up to build a Men’s Health Week Fundraiser and summer campaign to raise Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Awareness all while using my skydiving platform. With reckless abandon I’m attempting to set a world record for THE MOST NAKED SKYDIVES in 24hrs!!!
Why naked skydiving? Naked skydiving for me started as a tribute to another loss within our community. It is tradition on your 100th skydive to jump naked…and he was very close to his 100th jump, but unfortunately never got to take his 100th skydive.
I’ve made the intention to make that naked skydive for him, and for all others that we’ve lost, and who continue to battle and struggle with mental health issues today.
With that intro, I am sure I have brought up a lot of questions and, “so what can I do about it?” being one of them. I NEED YOUR HELP! And you don’t even have to make the dive with me or be naked.
THE FEAT…
My goal is to complete 60 skydives in one day!
Your help me support the costs that I need to meet the 60 skydives, and make the World Record for mental health awareness. Any monetary support would help move many of the hurdles that need to be pulled off the track to continue bringing help to those who need it most.
The full costs that will need covered include:
- Cost of the two planes (and fuel) needed to make the number of dives
- Medical staff required to check me out after each jump
- Jump, equipment and incidental fees
- Videographer
Any funds above and beyond costs is donated directly to Movember to continue education and resourcing efforts!
My goal is to raise enough support to cover the expenses, but my primary purpose is to exceed that with the publicity I have planned to raise a greater community awareness and involvement in helping the local community with mental health issues.
You can support his mission HERE.