#301 - WE ARE RON GOLD, TURNING TRAGEDY INTO PURPOSE AND ACTION

We Are Superman

On a bike ride on an open road in New Jersey in 2011, Ron Gold was struck head-on by an SUV whose driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel even though it was the middle of the day. He barely survived, suffering critical injuries, and was left a paraplegic. It was bad enough the driver was totally unapologetic about causing this tragic event. Ron spent many months in rehab, not to mention wrestling with feelings of despair and hopelessness. After he finally got back home, one thing he learned, which you would likely never find out otherwise, is how challenging it is to find a reliable home health care provider. Ron and I are fellow alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, and leveraging the business acumen he had gleaned both there and in his Wall Street jobs, Ron and his wife Betsy, who had encouraged him to find purpose in his life despite his situation, founded and run LeanOnWe. This organization serves to help pair people in the New York Tri-State area who need home healthcare with screened providers, as well as enable those providers to receive a livable wage, which is often a barrier to many remaining in the profession. LeanOnWe innovatively addresses both of these shortcomings, and has now matched more than 1900 individuals with providers. In the meantime, Ron has charged back in to the athletic world, in both para-rowing, in which he has competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, and as a marathoner using a handcycle, where he is roughly horizontal to the ground and “pedals” with his arms. He completed the Hartford Marathon in 2:56, and then improved to 2:42 at the New York City Marathon. Along the way, he has helped the fundraising efforts of Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player who was paralyzed in 2010 and is now an inspiring entrepreneur himself. Ron’s efforts have helped raise more than $36,000 for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to aid paralysis research and treatment. Ron’s story will inspire you how he pushed back against very dark times in his life, found a purpose, and had he not done that, the impacts on others that never would have been possible.
Ron Gold
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Bill Stahl
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