OUR STORY
About Us
Building a Community of Support.
The Free Wheel Foundation Board is committed to its vision, mission, and goals. This includes ensuring that the Free Wheel Foundation continues its mission throughout the year, to minimize overhead, maximize our charitable output, and to expand our community of support. We are steadfast in our principles that underlie and enable the mission and goals to be met each year. A long term goal for the current board is to further mature Free Wheel Foundation into a well-run charitable foundation as measured by Charity Navigator and other organizations that rate charitable organizations.
As we turn our focus toward 2019, we are excited for the road ahead and the new community of support we are generating along with the enthusiasm that brings to both new and old team members.
As a result of the 2018 Expedition Wasatch Event, the Free Wheel Foundation was proud to award checks to Knights of Heroes for $115,000 to pay off their mortgage and rebuild a deck on the main house (the contributing fundraising efforts the KOH teammates made at our event this year resulted in $40,000). Together we “burned the mortgage”!!!!
We presented a check to the Semper Fi Fund for $10,000 to continue development of their athlete program. This was in addition to an earlier presentation to the National Ability Center for $5,000 and another $30,000 to be used in sponsoring Paralyzed Veterans of America and Team Semper Fi athletes. This will provide for hotels, transportation, adaptive equipment, and includes grants for recovering military to attend the NAC on their road to recovery.
Last, but not least, this year we introduced Holly Katke as the newest member of the Free Wheel Foundation Team, and on August 25th we presented Holly with a $10,000 grant to aid in her move to Arizona to begin the next chapter in her road to recovery.
In summary, the Free Wheel Foundation has provided $170,000 in support from donations and our grant funds account as a result of the 2018 Expedition Wasatch Warrior Recovery Challenge. We could not have done this without team work.
Brian Marcucci
Free Wheel Foundation
President of the Board
Brian’s professional career has spanned 40 years, working in organizations from small businesses and start-ups to mid-sized companies to large, multinational corporations across 8 different industries with roles ranging from retail management, sales and business development, marketing, mergers & acquisitions, corporate development, general management and chief executive. For the last 20 years, Brian has operated as a senior executive at both publicly traded and private companies, charged with managing units and businesses to deliver value to stakeholders.
Davis McNeil
Free Wheel Foundation
Director of Operations
Second year Board Member and eight years participating as a rider. Davis holds a BA in International Business from Washington State University with 9 years professional experience. Davis is currently a Manager at KP&G Advisory Services. He is supported by his family and fiance, Lauren who rode with us for the first time last year.
Joe Liner
Free Wheel Foundation
Treasurer
Founding member of the Freewheel Foundation. Joe graduated with a BS of Science Industrial Management and Quantitative Analysis from the University of Cincinnati and received an MBA from Xavier University. He is currently the Director of Software Engineering at Pearson with 17 years of service with his company. Joe is support by his wife, Linda, who has provided logistics support for the Free Wheel Foundation since year one of the ride.
Kendra Befort
Free Wheel Foundation
Director of Communications
Second year Board Member and six years participating as a rider. Kendra has a PhD in Human Factors Engineering and is an Associate Technical Fellow in Crew Systems Integration on the Apache Attack Helicopter at the Boeing Co. for 19 years. Kendra's husband, Mike, is a pilot for American Airlines who also provides full time van driving support for the Free Wheel Foundation.
Paul Thompson
Free Wheel Foundation
Executive Director
Founding member of the Freewheel Foundation. Graduate of Oklahoma State University. Paul served in the US Air Force for 28 years and is a retired LtCol. He flew as a C-17 Medevac Pilot with over 150 combat missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, Paul is a Boeing 777 Pilot flying worldwide for United Airlines. Paul is also supported by his wife Tami who has provided logistics support since year one of the ride, his son Austin, and his son Jacob who was our youngest rider last year. Paul's oldest son, Garret, is currently serving in the Air Force overseas.
Brett Biederdorf
Free Wheel Foundation
Member of the Board
Founding member of the Freewheel Foundation, and led the foundation as President from 2008-2017. Brett graduated from Cal State with a Business Management degree and is the owner of Rural Electric, a 54 year family owned business. He is supported by Leslie, his wife of 26 years and his four children, Nick, Erik, Ryan, and Jasmine. He enjoys flying, traveling, road and mountain biking (obviously!), and is working with Paul Thompson on restoring a Stearman biplane.