Jeff Kiser - The SOB's Team Captain & Walker
About Me:
I was born in Hawaii in 1953 and moved back and forth from there to Maryland a couple of times. After high school I joined the Air Force where I gained some computer knowledge. In 1979 I got my first of many "computer programming certificates" and I've been programming ever since. I finally moved from the frigid confines of Washington DC to Safety Harbor Florida in 1995. I've never regretted that move. Currently I'm a software engineer for Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg and counting the days until retirement. Another personal note is that I reconnected (via Classmates.com) with a woman named Barbi who I shared Afro-American studies classes with in high school in Alexandria, Virginia. That would be 37 years ago if you were counting. (Ask me about the purple bell-bottoms sometime) Then after some long distance wooing I finally convinced her to join me in Safety Harbor. We've created a company called J&B Lightning Works. We're currently working with Deb Kunzie (the webmaster here) on building our website. We hope to bring back a little peace back into everyone's lives. So stay tuned for that adventure.
Why I Joined This Team:
Boy oh boy. I asked myself that question about a thousand times last year. Two of best friends, Janice and Dave Cramer, who own the wonderful Jolli Mon's restaurant in Dunedin had told me about their experiences walking. They told me that it was one of the most amazing, exhilarating, humbling and life altering experiences that they ever had and that it would be a great way for me to meet some new and fascinating people. After a couple of painful arm twisting episodes I finally caved in and said "OK! Enough already! I'll join the SOB's!". And so I did.
I must admit I was totally intimidated by the amount of money I had to raise AND the amount of training that was involved to get prepared for the 60 mile adventure. Not to mention the monetary investment in shoes, walking clothes, socks, body glide and all the other accoutrements required to train. A poignant moment happened when Janice and I were at the New Balance store in Tampa. She pulls out this "Co-Survivor" tee shirt and says here, buy this. I said but I'm not a co-survivor. And she says oh but yes you are. You know several survivors like Sue Arfman and Dave's sister Linda. I said oh yeah right. Then I remembered another survivor; my hair stylist Susan Pollard. I bought the shirt. And I wear it often. I'll need another one this year. Then I started meeting the most amazing bunch of people. People like SOB Team Captain Tony Leisner and Patti Leisner (Patti is a survivor) and Vickie Green-Naragon, and Andrea Mahoney and Fawn the author and Cathy Ross and Carrie Gatten, and two new brothers; Zeke and Fred. And about a hundred other people who have touched my soul. These folks, along with another good friend Sheila Porter (who started this madness), got me through the training walks. Ask me about the toenail lady incident sometime. Then I found out that there was an entire 3-day organization going on right here at RayJay! That made things a lot easier too.
My donation link:
Please help me raise the $2200.00 needed to walk for this cause.
Please click this link to go there now!
