For all of its problems, Twitter sometimes produces something cool. That was the case recently with Georgia State student David Schiele’s broadcasting reel going viral (for actually being good rather than for anything regrettable), and it was the case Tuesday when ESPN anchor Kenny Mayne made an unexpected visit to a second Seattle-area high school. Mayne, wearing a Vote shirt (because as he tweeted earlier, “My Apathy tee seemed inappropriate,”) tweeted Tuesday about stopping by Auburn, Washington’s Thomas Jefferson High School (he’s an alum) to promote the Run Freely charity he founded this year (which focuses on providing financial support for veterans with limb salvage conditions), and Christian Powers, a teacher at nearby Federal Way High School who tweets about the Mariners at @Kingdome_Turf, reached out to ask Mayne if he might be able to stop by FWHS as well. And Mayne did exactly that:
You wanna swing by FWHS while you're here and talk to my seniors about voting…or Stevie Wonder…or whatever?
— Kingdome Turf (@KingdomeTurf) November 6, 2018
“Isn’t this how Twitter is supposed to work?” —@Kenny_Mayne pic.twitter.com/uceFaf30MN
— Kingdome Turf (@KingdomeTurf) November 6, 2018
Oh, and Mayne got a little extra boost thanks to a call from actress Aubrey Plaza:
Thanks FWHS also for the time to spread the news about https://t.co/FoULvrVrzB
And that surprise @evilhag call! https://t.co/EXhg7IgORE
— Kenny Mayne (@Kenny_Mayne) November 6, 2018
It sounds like Mayne’s message resonated with a bunch of the students, too, with over $300 raised at TJHS alone. And he of course referenced now-colleague Randy Moss’ famed “Straight cash, homey” line:
StraightCash @RandyMoss Thanks! https://t.co/jnis0g6dZ4
— Kenny Mayne (@Kenny_Mayne) November 6, 2018
What exactly does Mayne’s charity do? Well, their goal is to help veterans who return home with limb salvage conditions avoid amputation and be able to walk and run without pain. And while Mayne isn’t a veteran himself, he’s well aware of the pain injuries can cause while running. As he writes, he suffered an ankle injury in 1980 while playing football for UNLV. That injury that caused him problems for decades, until he got the “magic” ExoSym device in 2017 and was able to run pain-free for the first time:
As Mayne writes, that motivated him to help others. “I called my wife Gretchen and we committed to celebrating our blessing by trying to get as many veterans as we can out of pain. It’s the least we can do.” So they founded this charity, and they’ve already seen some success; athletes from Gary Payton to Jerry Rice to Steve Largent helped kick things off at Bellevue, Washington’s Sammamish High School in August, and they’ve already been able to help one recipient who can now walk without a cane.
https://twitter.com/Wizdom80/status/1059913261041311744
You know what..f the cane..Our first recipient is walking on his own.
Congratulations Chris.https://t.co/XALBk3kEhm pic.twitter.com/jTqioT9YsZ
— Kenny Mayne (@Kenny_Mayne) October 19, 2018
So that’s pretty cool. And it’s also pretty cool that Mayne would make time to go talk to another school on such short notice, and that Twitter helped make that connection. Maybe it isn’t always a hellscape.
