History of ROW4Life

I had wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and to eventually serve in the USN as a Navy SEAL. I was pretty short, but very strong. Navy has a fantastic crew team and so I dreamed of rowing for Navy as a Coxswain. The Cox must be small and light while also being an excellent rower and amazing athlete since the Cox is the person who leads the rowers during the race. I worked out relentlessly on the erg and in the weight room. I also competed in the Mid-Atlantic erg Sprints on many occasions, too. All of my military and rowing dreams were crushed when I was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes in 2015. Rather than give up as a leader, I decided to have impact on the world in a different way and decided to help others less fortunate. So, I have been helping save Type-1 Diabetic children and to also mitigate civil war in South Sudan since 2016 through an organization I formed called Kyle's Campaigns for Change. See https://KCC-T1D.org for the website.

KCC has since saved the lives of over 100 T1D children in South Sudan by the donation of nearly $2 million of insulin and supplies through my visits in 2017-present, including a two-month stint in October-November 2020 where I attended school in South Sudan during the Covid pandemic. KCC also developed several policy papers with my U.S. Senate Page classmates for the Gov't of South Sudan in 2020. I also served as a KCC Constitutional Intern for the S. Sudan Ministry of Federal Affairs in 2023, living and working in Juba, SS for six weeks.

As a result of these numerous on-the-ground experiences in South Sudan via KCC I witnessed, first-hand, the effects of violence upon the S. Sudan economy after decades of civil war. However, I also saw first-hand how tall the men and women are in South Sudan. I have since grown quite a bit taller (I'm now about 5'7") since my T1D diagnosis in 2015, but I am still way too short to be a competitive rower. Even so, the people of South Sudan are all nearly a foot or more taller than me. So, I tried to think of a way for South Sudan to harness this athletic talent and to somehow win an Olympic medal and by doing so, promote unity and prevent civil war. This is when I realized as I recalled my experiences as a teenager, dreaming about rowing for Navy, that an 8-man rowing shell has 8 rowers, one coxswain, and one coach for a total of ten competitors. There are also ten states in South Sudan, and so it occurred to me that creating a rowing team would be a great symbol of unity and global diversity. 

I launched Row4Life in January 2022 and have since delivered 7 erg rowing machines as well as establishing a partnership with the Comboni School in Juba for the South Sudan National Erg Rowing Center as well as another partnership with Destiny University for an on-the-water facility at Terekaka (25 miles North of Juba).