Hal has been a runner most of his life, starting in grade school and competitively in Jr High as a distance runner. After attending college in Ann Arbor (and graduating as a mechanical engineer) he began running 10K races and eventually became a race director and track & field event organizer. Hal worked with the Michigan Blind Athletic Assoc. at their annual sports camp for a decade starting in 2002 as their track & field director. He also took promising young athletes to USABA sport camps in Colorado for many years starting in 2003. He has directed other running events such as the Ford 5000 and the Gallup Gallop and the Dexter - Ann Arbor Run. Starting Running Blind was a natural evolution growing from his work with the Ford Runners Club, the AATC, MBAA and USABA. He took on the challenge starting a non-profit to more formally do what he enjoys most in life, helping people and hopes that Running Blind will continue to make a positive contribution to society.
Geri is legally blind (in the B3 category) and has been helping with Running Blind since 2017 with communications. She formally was a teacher of the visually impaired at the elementary school level in Akron, Ohio. She is now very active as a fitness walker and is also a board member of the Michigan Ski For Light nonprofit group, which helps visually impaired people (VIPs) experience the joy of winter through XC skiing. She has a two children and a growing number of grand children!
Tom grew up in Winchester Massachusetts spending summers in New Hampshire. He got his S.B. in mechanical engineering from MIT, then his M.S.M.E. from Northeastern University and then moved to Michigan in 1972 to work at Ford.
Tom spent most of his career writing engineering and other software, including web-based applications. At Ford, Tom and Hal collaborated to create online registration forms and generally improve the website for the Employee Christmas Fund. Tom later worked with Hal again as his webmaster for the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run. He also volunteers at the Hope Medical Clinic in Ypsilanti writing interactive web pages for the Hope website.
In his spare time, Tom loves to teach and, over the years, has taught Math, Science, Tennis, Piano and Sunday School. Also, for 14 years, Tom was the photographer for the Pamela Dunworth Studio/ Dearborn Dance Academy.
His only experience with running is that he was the fastest runner in his 5th grade class at Wyman School.
Amy is the former President of the Michigan Parents of Children with Visual Impairments (MPVI). She has a MS in Elementary Education from Northwestern University, where she played Division 1 tennis, and is a part-time tennis teaching professional. Her volunteer efforts include the Michigan Department of Education-Low Incidence Outreach Independent Living Skills committee, the Ann Arbor Public Schools Parent Advisory Committee to Special Education, and the Ann Arbor Disability Awareness Workshops. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Andy and her two boys, 17-year-old Drew, and 12-year-old Austin, who has a visual impairment.
Katy is the director of a non-profit group that she started called "Team Beav", This group is in honor of her brother (Major Gerald Bloomfield - aka "the Beav") who died in Iraq in a helicopter accident. (He was a pilot.) She honors his service & sacrifice and his memory with the work she does with that group and in organizing a large group to attend the Marine Corps Marathon every year. Katy is also a runner and was a guide runner with us at one time. She helped start a race in Brighton - the 911 Memorial 5K. This event honors all fire fighters what have paid the ultimate price trying to protect us. Katy works in pharmaceutical sales and is the mother of two beautiful girls. She joined the board in 2013.
Rick was a professor at Concordia University in Ann Arbor and primarily where he taught kinesiology. One of his classes covered the challenges of dealing with disabilities and the adaptations required to overcome them. He has been involved in assisting visually impaired athletes from a few years back at a friend's sports camp for blind athletes in Minnesota. He is also an avid runner and is interested in helping as a guide runner. Rick joined the board in 2013.
Yuval has a PhD in computer science and lives in both Ann Arbor and Costa Rica. He is also an active runner and a former board member for the Ann Arbor Track Club. That is where he met Hal who was then the Race Director for the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run. Yuval and Hal worked closely together trying hard to improve the customer satisfaction for runners in that event. Yuval has left the board since he now spends most of his time in Costa Rica. We miss him and his great sense of humor.