The Garden City Telegram

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Keeping the legacy alive

Published 8/27/2011 in Features

Kansas City man journeys across state in memory of Laura Kleysteuber.

Joshua Wolf admits he never knew Laura.

But it's Laura Kleysteuber — and all the other "Lauras" in his life — who he'll be thinking about as he treks 450 miles across Kansas on a journey that began Thursday in Garden City, her last home.

An image of the 30-year-old mother of two who died in 2006 after a six-year battle with brain cancer is securely taped to the handlebars of Wolf's bicycle.

It's the bike he is using to ride on a three-day endurance expedition from Garden City to Overland Park.

Laura's legacy — "endurance, inspired by hope" — is a message that struck a deep chord within him, Wolf said, and a message he hopes to personify on his journey

that he's coined "Maintaining the Legacy."

"Laura's mom (Sandy Badgett) wrote this book, 'Remembering Laura.' ... One of the things she very strongly put was that Laura's passing away was not by accident," Wolf said. "Laura's words and her story were ringing in my head back in December when I read that book, and I knew I had to do something. I could not let her story die."

On a mission

Wolf, a 29-year-old triathlon coach and personal trainer from the Kansas City, Mo., area, said he first stumbled across Laura's story though his fiancée, Trisha, a fellow Chi Omega sorority sister of Laura's at Kansas State University.

A couple of years ago, his fiancée traveled to Garden City to take part in the Laura's Legacy 10K and 5K races that are held each fall by the Leave a Legacy Foundation, born from an "untimely death" and to raise money for cancer research in southwest Kansas.

"Next year, she said I needed to go," Wolf said. "For the life of me, I couldn't understand why she'd want to drive 400 miles out to western Kansas to do a 10K. Now that I've done it once, I totally understand why she was pulled so strongly in that direction."

This year's Garden City run won't be until Oct. 1, but Wolf started his endurance mission early Thursday morning at St. Catherine Hospital by running a 10-kilometer-long route around Garden City's neighborhoods along with a handful of cross country athletes from Garden City High School.

The Garden City High School band's drum line beat on their instruments to welcome Wolf and the other runners back at the finish line and to pay tribute to Wolf as he jumped on his bike to head first to Great Bend, where Laura once received cancer treatment; then to Manhattan, where Laura once went to college; and then on to Overland Park Sunday where Wolf will join a team of "Laura's Legacy" runners who are taking part in the ninth annual Head for the Cure 5K race.

"Why not just tie it all together and make something special of it?" Wolf said Thursday as he spoke to some of the young runners and onlookers gathered in St. Catherine's south lobby to see the professional athlete off.

Clad in his iconic pink biker's suit, Wolf bore small pink tattoos of a winking and smiling heart on the back of both his calves and on his shoulders. The logo belonging to the Leave a Legacy Foundation was inspired by Laura, who had a grand mal seizure and lost control of the right side of her face. Every time she smiled, her right eye would look like a wink, Wolf said.

"I want everyone to pass on the wink and smile, a symbol of courage, hope and endurance," Wolf said on Thursday. "Whether that's physical endurance or whether you have the gift of art or passion."

'Maintaining the legacy'

A short pink ribbon decorated with bright white polka dots is inscribed with the name "Laura K.," and is safety-pinned to a flag Wolf carried on Thursday during his run in Garden City. The white flag reads "Who's Your Laura?"

That flag, along with another larger flag bearing even more pink ribbons with names of cancer survivors and victims, is traveling with Wolf and his team of two to Overland Park on Sunday.

Patrick Bates, Wolf's friend whose wife is battling cancer, as well, said he plans to keep the iron man and professional triathlete company and will cycle beside him for short periods during the bike route.

"I think this has far exceeded what any of us thought it could be," Bates said in awe Thursday, as he watched high-schoolers add their own names to the "Who's Your Laura?" flags.

Along the cross-state journey, Wolf's team of three — including another friend and fellow runner Kim Brosseit — plan to encourage people to add more names to the flags.

The commemorative banners will be returned to Garden City, when Wolf said he plans to return for the October run that got it all started.

Until then, it's Laura and the handful of other "Lauras" in his life — friends, extended family and fellow athletes who have survived breast, brain and other cancers — who he'll be running and biking in spirit of.

"I feel like so many of us have so many people in our lives who have been affected by cancer. That's where 'Who's Your Laura?' comes from," Wolf said. "We all have those people in our lives who (are) our Lauras."

Who do you run for?

Run or walk to benefit the Leave a Legacy Foundation (formerly Laura's Legacy) in the Legacy 10K or Spirit 5K on Oct. 1 at Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City.

The Leave a Legacy Foundation's goal is to strengthen the resources available to fight cancer in southwest Kansas. In April 2010, the foundation made its largest single donation of $28,000 toward the purchase of a digital mammography machine for St. Catherine Hospital.

The race entry fee is $25 per person. The runs will be followed by a kids' one-mile fun run and a pancake feed. Visit www.whodoyourunfor.org for more information or to register.

Also, follow Josh's journey across Kansas to fight brain cancer at www.joshuajwolf.com.

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