you know you raise some money and you
shave your head to raise awareness and
and to show that you know you're willing
to make a very small sacrifice for you
know for children that they don't have
the choice on if they get to keep their
hair or not we first introduced you to
Orange County firefighters Steven Kibler
back in 2016 he was named a getting
result Award winner for raising money
against raising money and awareness for
pediatric cancer and you'll be happy to
hear that Kepler is still getting
results in his community he has on his
he's taking his mission on the road
starting tomorrow and joining us now
Orange County firefighter Steve Kibler
and I have to say first of all you look
a little bit different than the last
time we saw you yeah I normally grow it
out from about this time and then in
March when that piece there where we do
st. Baldrick's and we shave our head so
I cut it right before this event that
I'm about ready to go on then we're
going to talk about 24 hours of booty
and then grow it out from from here
until March alright and last time we
talked to you in March 2016
you had raised about $200,000 for st.
Baldrick's and make you do some math now
what's the update to that well so 2016
we've done the event two more years last
year we raised about 51,000 dollars I
believe in this year we did about 40,000
so add that to the total so we're
closing in on 300,000 awesome right so
for viewers who aren't as familiar with
your story what made you so passionate
about this in in 2008 my wife and I had
our first child Camden rush Kibler and
at the age of five months he passed away
from leukemia and through the fire
service I found out about st. Baldrick's
originally and I thought it was a great
idea so we started the event at my fire
station and the first year we raised
thirteen hundred dollars and then a
family member
later on that year told me about 24
hours of Booty and he actually rode in
the event the year that we were in the
hospital and the next year he asked me
to come out I'm not a cyclist at all he
asked me to come out and we set a goal
of a hundred and sixty miles because my
son lived 160 days so every July we'd
take a trip
to Charlotte and raise some more money
and some more awareness just in the time
that I've known you I mean I really feel
like we've seen this groans grow so much
I see your team Camden shirt I mean are
you surprised that you started out doing
something that raised thirteen hundred
dollars and here we are years later with
all that you've done yeah it's it's
humbling
excuse me it's humbling to think that a
five-month old ten years ago is still
making a difference you know today and
and the support that I have is is our
whole family has is is is remarkable we
we still get people that they're
reaching out to me hey wins you know
when st. Baldrick's feels they'll send
me pictures of them growing their hair
out you know things like that I'll just
get messages still ten years later just
hey thinking about you you know still
here for you
we understand that your loss is a
lifetime and we're still here anytime
you need it so but but yeah he's uh he's
made quite an impact and one thing that
I've noticed about you again I think you
and I may be met like three years ago is
that you provide so much support for
people who are going through similar
situations and I know that that's just
invaluable for these people you come
into contact with yeah I don't know I
would say probably I probably about four
years ago it's kind of when I made the
transition from needing support and
really just being a sponge and sucking
up all the support from everybody around
me to realizing that you know it's been
a few years
I have healed it's never gonna go away
but but I've healed enough now to where
I want to give back I I know what the
impact is when somebody would allow me
to lean on them and just listen or just
recognize that you know my son is gone
and that we're still dealing with it
every day and so I would say about four
years ago is when that's when I
recognized okay I can use you know his
story and my experience and give back
and try to support other families that
are unfortunately going through the same
thing we went through and you have a
special project that's coming up so tell
us a little bit about that so the
special project
I owed it to it's it's called 24 hours
of booty now
butI is just the nickname of the loop I
don't want anybody to get anything wrong
I am its yeah and so the event is a 24
hour bike ride it's not a race or
anything and it's a three mile loop
around a college in Charlotte and you
show up on Friday night at 7 p.m. and
you ride as many miles as you feel like
riding from 7:00 p.m. till Saturday at 7
p.m. and so we have a few team Camden
has a few rules one rule is you have to
ride 160 miles unless you come to the
team captain which is me and give me the
reason of you know why this year you
can't do 160 you don't sleep one rule is
we don't sleep that goes back to when
the last day that Camden the last night
the Camden was alive I actually fell
asleep holding him in a recliner and
while you know I've been told that I'm
sure it was very soothing for for him
and and probably what he needed instead
of a stressful environment I did fall
asleep in the recliner so now we kind of
use that as motivation to to to try to
you know spread our mission the entire
24 hours so we don't sleep and yeah so
we do 160 miles it's up in Charlotte we
leave from the cemetery so tomorrow
we'll go to the cemetery we'll have a
light breakfast there and we'll just
kind of hang out with Camden and you
know the the boy that kind of inspired
us to do all this for the last 10 years
all right Steve Kaplan thank you so much
for joining us thanks for having me