Every Monday and Wednesday morning, Buechel Park Baptist Church’s gym teems with activity – an assembly of men and women in the Louisville community exercising together. And that includes boxing.
It began years ago when Doug Pifer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. No cure has been identified, and medication comes with high expense and side effects. Pifer still looked for ways to maintain his abilities and fight back against the progression – an effort he found help with from the Rock Steady Boxing program, a physical therapy program for Parkinson’s patients.
Pifer recognized the value of the program, and saw that his own community was in need of something similar. The result of his dream is TKO Parkinson’s, the Rock Steady Boxing program for Louisville. While many come with a cost, TKO Parkinson’s classes are free, even Friday classes online. But in order to keep it free, Pifer has had the help of a team of family, friends and community members who rallied around him in the fight against Parkinson’s.
Brian Helton is one of the organization’s dedicated fundraisers working through partner organization TKO Flight Club – a name originating from the “fight club” at TKO Parkinson’s.
“I met Doug when we worked together at Mercy Transportation in Louisville, and Doug was my mentor, so to speak,” Helton says. “He had been with the company for years when I started there. We worked together for close to 15 years, so I had gotten to know Doug prior to him having Parkinson’s, and got to watch his journey into trying to find things that would help. Then [Doug’s son] Tom started working at the same place during this time period, so I got to know Tom. These guys are as close to family as I have. I just love Doug, and as soon as I heard Tom say, ‘I want to help my dad,’ I had been looking for something to donate my time to and invest in for our community, and I just instantly knew this was the thing for me.”
With the combined efforts of these men and many other members of the Louisville community, TKO Parkinson’s can continue. The two organizations host a variety of events throughout the year, including a Derby celebration and the TKO Parkinson’s Festival. Helton says he is glad “just to be able to put together an event that Doug doesn’t have to help plan, and that Doug doesn’t have to work. If I was just going as an attendee, it would be so much fun for me to be at this event, but to be a part of it and to know that I’m helping make it happen, it’s very rewarding.”
It is truly the fighters at TKO Parkinson’s that have the biggest impact. “I’ve went to some workouts, and I’ve been to their exhibitions where they do charity events and they’ll have the fighters come out,” Helton says. “And workouts are hard. Workouts are hard for healthy 30-year-olds. I’ve literally been brought to tears watching how hard these guys work and how hard they fight. And it’s to try to improve the quality of their life, and to just hang on for that extra time. It’s very moving to know that you’re a part of helping them do that; but very humbling at the same time. For these guys, everything gets harder as far as movements and balance and concentration, and they just go out there and they outwork everybody, and it’s very humbling to see that.”
“The results are clear,” Helton adds. “It’s a proven effective treatment to help fight Parkinson’s.” Better yet, the classes are attentive to symptoms occurring at any point in disease progression.
“The real impact was not only that we’re finding something that helps improve the lives of the patients and their families – it’s hard on the family – but it’s not an additional cost,” Helton says. “They’re already shelling out money for appointments and hospital visits and checkups and medications, and this is something that we make sure that they don’t have to pay for.”
The group hopes to continue raising funds that will allow for free boxing years into the future, as well as a dedicated TKO Parkinson’s gym. “We’re working really hard to put back money for future years so that hopefully this is sustainable long after Tom and Doug and I are involved in it,” Helton says. But the work is not just of planning for the future, but of improving the present. Helping fundraise eases the burden off of Pifer and others who serve through TKO Parkinson’s, in addition to the impacted families. Helton reflects on the integral role of fundraising, saying that “none of these folks have to ever worry about paying for anything, and Doug and his organization don’t have to worry about trying to get out there and raise funds. They can just focus on their community part of it.”
Helton looks eagerly to the future of TKO Parkinson’s. “We want to see it grow and grow and grow,” he says. “I’d love to see this just outlive all of us. I just appreciate the opportunity to get the message out there. I wanted to find a way to be involved in charity anyway, and having people that I love and care about involved, that I can directly help, just made it all that much better. Parkinson’s doesn’t quite get the attention that a lot of other incurable or even hard-to-treat diseases do, so that feels really good too, to just help draw more awareness on the local level about it and give people a resource.”
Just as Helton got involved where he saw a need, he encourages community members to do the same. “Reach out to us if you’re interested in getting involved in events or donating, or interested in taking the classes,” he says. “TKO Parkinson’s loves to have people come out and assist at the gym. They have a fall festival that they use volunteers for. You can go on to the websites, and there’s contacts for that as well. Just let us know that you’re interested. We’ll reach out and be glad to help you find a way to help.”
“There are so many people that we haven’t even reached in our community that have Parkinson’s,” he adds. “This program helps them. There’s no cure for Parkinson’s, so we need to find ways to help improve the quality of life for the fighters in our town, and this is a very good way to help that happen.”
Whether donating, volunteering or taking a class, there is a place for everyone in the world of boxing and workouts in the gym at Buechel Park Baptist Church. With the help of Helton, the Pifers, and a host of supporters and volunteers, Louisville is well on its way in the battle against Parkinson’s. It is a battle that is fought one workout, one class and one community member at a time, and it isn’t over yet.
