Mark's Transformative Thoughts: March 2022

David Schmit • March 23, 2022

The Power of Community

Dear Split Second Family,


I often think about the limitations of government. That might sound strange from someone within government, and someone who advocates for public policy changes. Please hear me out. 


We can’t always rely on government services to take care of people--we know this and see this daily--but there is good news. That’s the power of community when it leans in and supports those organizations on the ground doing the work. And there are so many incredible nonprofits doing this kind of work like my friend Sonny, CEO of Son of a Saint, which is filling a critical social gap for fatherless young men.  It’s succeeding partially because Son of a Saint is a hardworking nonprofit and not a large bureaucracy. 


The Split Second Foundation is filling in gaps in care for people living with disabilities. Before we opened Split Second Fitness, there wasn’t an inclusive fitness facility in Louisiana focused on people living with SCI, other neurological conditions and amputees. Today, our facility is full on a daily basis with people out of their wheelchairs and their houses, working out, meeting others and continuing their personal recoveries. 


We’re only able to do work because of people like you and the power of community!


The philanthropic season has started and there will be numerous opportunities--the Crescent City Classic, Give NOLA Day, Split Second’s Show of Love gala on October 22, and Giving Tuesday--to support nonprofits like us, and show to others how the power of community can lift us all. 


Ps: If you haven’t yet, please sign up to walk, run, or roll with Split Second Foundation in this year’s Crescent City Classic.


With Gratitude,


Mark

Watch Mark Raymond Jr. on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday, May 7th

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Watch Split Second Foundation founder Mark Raymond Jr. in his appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show this Tuesday, May 7th!

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The last thing Mark Raymond Jr. remembers in those final seconds before the accident was standing in the back of his buddy’s boat at the end of a perfect July afternoon in 2016, and staring down into the waters of Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain. Then he dove in and instantly felt his forehead slam into the sandy bottom of the lake. “I couldn’t move and realized, 'I’m probably going to drown,’ " Raymond tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. “My last thoughts were about my mom and just praying that my friends would realize what was happening.” He was close to death when his pals pulled him out of the water and performed CPR. Two weeks later, Raymond awoke from a medically induced coma in a New Orleans hospital to discover that he’d fractured the fifth vertebrae in his neck and could no longer walk or fully use his hands. “I quickly learned that my life was going to be really different,” he says. “To call it a huge adjustment is an understatement.” Read more.

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