5: Chris Kaag
CEO, IM ABLE FOUNDATION
Chris Kaag is the CEO, owner, and founder of the IM ABLE Foundation, which provides opportunities for people with cognitive or physical disabilities and challenges to be active and healthy. Established in 2007, the foundation engages with people of all ability levels in the adaptive community, providing adaptive equipment grants, adaptive personal training, and disability advocacy. A Marine Corps veteran, Chris has been using a wheelchair for 15 years. He started the foundation because he wanted to maintain being active and wanted to help others do the same. His work changed a great deal during the pandemic because they could no longer conduct in-person workouts and classes. The classes were moved to Zoom, which proved to be a difficult adjustment for everyone, especially for their cognitively challenged clients. Even in an online context though, Chris thinks it was very important to continue conducting classes in order to maintain the social atmosphere that they provide and to continue to be there for the clients.
At the time of the interview, Chris is still working out of his home, having sold his gym space, called Corps Fitness, in order to focus on the foundation. IM ABLE acquired a new location but is not using it very much yet due to the continued need to remain virtual. For Chris, one of the biggest issues the pandemic presented was just trying to figure out what the new world was going to look like and how to best continue serving the people he needs to serve. However, Chris tries to always look at the positives in any situation, and one of them is that he has gotten to connect with groups and people all over the country that he otherwise might not have. He even did a class for a group of kids in California with the early onset stages of his own condition. Even though the world has gotten a lot smaller in many ways, at the same time it also grew immeasurably. The pandemic has really redefined what it is that Chris does and what his foundation can do. He realized they don’t actually need a lot of the things they thought they needed before. They can do with less and still make a big impact on people. The pandemic has really made Chris expand his vision for the IM ABLE Foundation. He wants to create a community center for people with all different abilities to be able to come together and accomplish amazing things.
Chris did not know many people who contracted COVID, less than a dozen. He himself luckily did not get it either. But he has really realized in light of the pandemic how important family is and how crucial and wonderful it is to spend time with them. Despite all of the drawbacks and tragedies, Chris does deeply appreciate all the time he’s had to spend with his wife and eight-year-old son. Even though the context was so unfortunate, he is so glad that he and his wife had this time to really closely connect with and make good memories with their son before he grows up.
