News-Info-Alerts

Re: Good People Doing Good Things

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 21, 2002

"Sunday, July 21, 2002
Marine Corps sergeant gets new wheels, assist from Muncie man

By PHIL BEEBE

MUNCIE - Steve Martinez wasn't doing anything special last fall at a black tie dinner in Colorado when he happened to meet Muncie's John Kammer. That chance meeting led to a relationship that brought Martinez, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, to Saturday's Muncie Endurathon.

Kammer was in Cripple Creek, Colo., to provide water through his company, Kammer Bottled Water, for a POW/MIA motorcycle rally. When officials had trouble lighting candles to recognize each of the military branches during a ceremony, Kammer offered a lighter. Later, when Martinez returned the lighter, he and Kammer began to talk, and the subject of Martinez's competition in triathlons came up.

"I said, 'Then you have to be my guest at the Endurathon in Muncie,' " Kammer said Saturday morning in recalling the event.

Martinez participated Saturday and finished in 5:12, but not before overcoming some obstacles en route to Indianapolis.

While at the Denver airport waiting to fly to Indianapolis on Thursday, he learned that his bicycle tires had been damaged at the airport. He called Kammer, who encouraged him to come anyway.

When Martinez arrived in Indianapolis, he and Kammer contacted the Indianapolis wheel manufacturer and explained the situation. The $2,000 set of wheels, for which athletes generally have to wait 6-8 weeks, were made available on the spot. Then Kammer and Martinez found a business, Wave Bike Shop in Indianapolis, to help with tires and installation.

"I know how some other bike shops are, and nobody would have helped," said Wave's Scott Dunwoody, who worked with Martinez until 9:30 p.m. Thursday night. "I'm always willing to help."

That allowed Martinez to be on his way to Muncie for some rest before Saturday's race.

"I had always heard great things about the Endurathon, but it was always full when I would go to sign up," Martinez said.

For Kammer, a man with strong patriotic emotions, Martinez's presence in the race was a tribute to all that is good in the United States: the candles that burned in Colorado in memory of fallen veterans; the service that members of the military provide every day, and the increased importance of every American lending a hand in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I wanted him to run [in the Endurathon] as a symbol of all of this," Kammer said.

* Contact Phil Beebe at pbeebe@thestarpress.com"