Gnar Jar – The Injured Riders Foundation

I stumbled across this press release today and felt the urge that I had to spread the word. I know a lot of people out there, two in particular, who regularly shred hard without any type of health insurance. wakeboardSTL wants you to know, that no matter what the cost, it is important to purchase health insurance to keep yourself protected. One major injury such as a torn ACL, could leave you with a lifetime of medical bills.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is that for those of you who do shred hard without insurance, there are some very kind people out there who are willing to help cover your back. These kind people are the volunteers at the Injured Riders Foundation and they have started a new campaign to help with donations to the cause called The GnarJar. Here is some important inforamtion from them:

Friday, August 27,2010 – Jamestown New York: The Injured Riders Foundation is proud to introduce GNARJAR | A fund raising product for action sports retail stores that will help ALL PEOPLE who are uninsured and under insured that get hurt while participating in action sports. GnarJar is presented by The Injured Riders Foundation; A 501C3 Non Profit Organization that has made helping these people its mission. The GNARJAR will be available to all Snowboard, Ski, Skate, Moto, BMX, Wakeboard and more action sports shops across the world.

This is the first opportunity for shops to show their support for The Injured Riders Foundation and help achieve the foundations mission. Shops will receive the Jar and display it on their counter top in the shop and sell the Injured Riders wrist bands that are inside. The Glass is a 1/2 gallon sleek glass jar that will be customized with decals that say GNARJAR and will explain the project. Each Jar can be customized to the shops liking.

“We are truly excited to launch GnarJar. Its a great new model for raising the needed funds for the IRF to achieve its mission. We believe that with the support of the shops we can raise funds to help a ton of athletes in need and we are declaring that we will match dollar for dollar; every dollar raised through GnarJar we will cover in medical bills for injured athletes.” - John Centi, President of the IRF.

In the past year The IRF Foundation has already handled over $120,000 in medical bills for injured athletes. The Foundation is in the current process of assisting more athletes right now and have new riders filling out our eligibility form everyday. “There is definitely a need for our foundations efforts and with the combined efforts of the shops and community we can help every rider that comes to us in their time of need”

For every shop that commits to getting a GNARJAR, the shop will get a profile on GNARJAR.com that will include information about the shop, where to find them, why to shop there and the retail brands they carry. The shop will also be listed on The INJUREDRIDERS.ORG website as a supporter of the Foundation. There is a lot of benefits that go along with being a GNARJAR shop other than knowing your money is going to help injured athletes in need. “We have prepared this program so that it will benefit the entire action sports community.”

For more information please check out GNARJAR.COM, and INJUREDRIDERS.ORG

ABOUT THE IRF:
The Injured Riders Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Non Profit Organization that is dedicated to helping ALL PEOPLE hurt while participating in action sports who have no insurance or who are underinsured. We need YOUR help to grow the funds needed to assist those who are injured and start making a difference in such a troubling time.

wakeboardSTL is challenging all St. Louis and Kansas City area local shops who may be reading our blog to participate. For each shop that signs up to participate, wakeboardSTL will donate our time and services to provide a full-day wakeboard clinic in conjunction with the participating shop. We're up to it if you're up to it, care to take us up? We will be sure to randomly drop in and check the local shops to see who is participating! So come on let's help our fellow brother and sisters involved in action sports.