Your Help is Needed to Fund the Scotty Smiley Documentary
SkEye Studios has created a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary of blind Veteran, Scotty Smiley, as he trains for and competes in the Coeur d'Alene Ironman. As a featured speaker and honored guest of our Carrington Charitable Foundation Golf Classic, we have witnessed Scotty’s resilience and determination, and know first-hand how inspiring his story is as the Army’s first active-duty blind officer and company commander. The studio is in need of donations to create the documentary and make Scotty’s story come to life.
Scotty Smiley was deployed to Iraq in 2005 and was blinded when a suicide car bomb exploded. Since that time, he has committed his life to achieving things that he and others think are impossible for a blind person to do. He has gone surfing, climbed mountains, and even gone sky-diving. His next target is to become an Ironman.
This June, he will compete in the Coeur d'Alene Ironman Triathlon along with thousands of other athletes. This grueling event includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile run all in one day. Scotty will be on a very unique journey though, since he will be competing in the Ironman without being able to see. The main conflict in the story will be the struggle and the difficulties Scotty has to overcome to compete in and finish an Ironman. The goal of the film is to capture the potential chaos and challenges for a blind man, in addition to the already intense competition all high-level athletes in this event.
“When I met Scotty, I was immediately intrigued and inspired by his story,” shares the documentary’s Director, Chris Kiefer of SkEye Studios. “I could see that Scotty is one of those rare individuals that made the radical decision of how he was going to live his life, without fear of failure and totally outside of his comfort zone. Most people do not rise up and meet this challenge-- this is what makes him so special. Scotty Smiley competing in this Ironman is the epitome of the decision we are all faced with in life when met with challenges and heartbreak— to choose greatness or to choose mediocrity.”
Your help is needed to fund this project and funding ends May 6th!