At 4 PM on Sunday, March 7th, six brothers completed the 4x4x48 challenge, putting their mental and physical toughness to the test running 48 miles in 48 hours to raise money for the SEAL Legacy Foundation.
Member of WA Alpha’s Member Class ’17 and Broadcast News major Andrew Baertlein covered the story in the video below:
The members that completed the challenge were juniors Nick Fazio, Andrew Hansen, Conner Rath, and Cass Riggan, sophomore Jackson Burpee, and senior Jack Hill.
Nick Fazio organized the challenge, which was inspired by retired Navy SEAL David Goggins. Donations that were raised support the families of fallen Navy SEALS, specifically the 115 United States Navy SEALS that have lost their lives since 9/11.
Starting at 8 pm Friday, 3/5, members participating ran 4 miles every 48 hours, running at 4, 8, and 12 AM and PM until Sunday at 4 PM.
After each run, members turned to social media to encourage their peers and family members to donate.
By the end of their last 4 miles, the group raised $7,500 to fund a scholarship for the child of a fallen SEAL.
However, if they reached their original goal of $10,000, an additional $5,000 would be added to their donations by a member of the SEAL Legacy Foundation, allowing the group to fund scholarships for 3 different children of wounded and fallen SEALs.
Hearing this, members of Washington Alpha turned to social media to advertise their brothers’ journey in an effort to help them achieve their goal.
Their $10,00o goal was met and boosted by an additional $5,000, for a total of $15,000 from 118 donors.
The runners were split into two groups of members with one group consisting of Fazio, Hansen, and Rath running in Fazio’s hometown of Redmond, and the other consisting of Hill, Riggan, and Burpee in Pullman.
The Pullman group always started and ended their runs at the SigEp chapter house.
In Pullman, the dedicated group of 3 received large amounts of support from their brothers, consisting of brothers joining them for 4 mile segments, or brothers cheering them on as they ran past the residence of their peers.
“This challenge untapped reserves of perseverence and truly showed the power of positivity to my fellow runners and I,” said Jack Hill.
Freshman Donald Jordan and Sophomore Alex Stuart also each ran half of the 48 miles in Pullman.
For now, this group of dedicated members rests, happy with the support they’ve received from their family and friends and the donations they have generated.
We are proud to call them our brothers and congratulate them for their accomplishment!
If you would like to donate or read more about this challenge, both can be done here: http://seallegacy.org/48challenge