Triplegic injured warrior Adam Keys completed his bucket list by trekking the 19,341-foot-high peak of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro this year, thanks in part to donations from Fresh-Aire UV and its Patriot IAQ program to veterans charity Warrior Events, Annapolis, Md.
Patriot IAQ is an indoor-air-quality equipment dealer program created by Fresh-Aire UV where a portion of each sale’s proceeds are donated to veter]ans charities.
Fresh-Aire UV presented a check Dec. 15 to Warrior Events, which helps partially fund veterans events, such as Keys’ five-day mountain-climb and the incurred costs for Tanzanian trail guides, an EMT, supplies and travel. The 26-year-old Keys was the sole survivor when a truck transporting U.S. Army paratroopers was blown up by an Afghanistan roadside bomb in 2010.
More than 100 surgeries later, Keys offered his inspirational soaring achievement as a tribute to his fallen comrades that was featured on CBS This Morning’s “Pushing the Limits” Series and Fox and Friends television shows.
The climbing effort propagated other veteran funding successes, such as Keys’ “adamkeys1stepforward” Facebook fundraising page that now gives 33% of its donations to Warrior Events.
“Our passion is to make sure everyone at our events feels special and that it feels like a ‘bucket list’ event,“ said John O’Leary, chairman, Warrior Events, which funded 60% of Keys’ climb and co-hosted 55 other events in 2018 that brought injured veterans together with each other, friends and family.
“Patriot IAQ only donates to veteran charities that have little or no administrative costs, so that all the money gets to the people who need it,” said Ron Saunders, vice president of Fresh-Aire UV.