Humbly Courageous is growing

Many of you may know that my writing life started with my blog titled “Humbly Courageous” that I started back in 2019.

Before starting my blog, I did not have much of a connection to writing other than a personal journal. In high school and college, I enjoyed writing papers for English class, but that was about the extent of it.

I discovered a love for something new that I was not expecting. I love that at this stage of my life; I can still look forward to new endeavors that take me by surprise.

When I started Humbly Courageous, I never had any plans for it beyond the blog. Again, life took me by surprise when my husband and I started to discuss taking it further after it had become our marathon team name.

We discussed all the possibilities and ways that we could grow Humbly Courageous and turn it into a nonprofit that could be beneficial to people with disabilities.

Several months later, we officially got the paperwork for the Humbly Courageous Corporation.

We also started working on a website. That part also took me by surprise. We worked along with our website designer for months designing the website to reflect the heart of Humbly Courageous. My husband spent many weekends and evenings trying to make sure it was exactly right. I learned a lot during that process.

On our new website, humblycourageous.com, you can access my blog, this column, my accessibility review series with Hamilton County Tourism, podcast interviews, information about each marathon we have run and even a team store. A one-stop shop for everything Humbly Courageous.

We have hopes of raising enough money to be able to give someone a duo bike, like an anonymous donor did for us many years ago. We will never forget that feeling when they gave our bike to us. We were overwhelmed that someone would be that generous. We knew that one day, we would pay it forward.

Our tagline for our website is “Real stories. Running together.”

Under the “What We Do” tab it reads, “we are a non-profit organization who encourages living life with humbly courage by sharing relatable stories that highlight everyday strengths and the challenges of life with a disability while seeking opportunities for growth.”

I speak on my own to various places, but one thing we would also like to do is more speaking engagements together. We had the opportunity last year to do our first speech together at CNO Financial. It was an amazing opportunity to share our story with several of their Business Resource Groups titled “Running with Resilience and Embracing the Power of Interdependence.”

Last week, I spoke with employees at Kimball Solutions. It was a fantastic conversation with some thought-provoking questions. Some of the questions were ones that I had not heard before. It was a great discussion about disabilities.

Training for the Sydney Marathon in Sydney, Australia has started. We are heading there near the end of August and there is a combination of nerves and excitement. It is Humbly Courageous’s biggest adventure yet and will help us check off our fifth world major marathon.

If you are interested in following us on our journey to Australia and the months leading up to the marathon, you can check out my social media listed below. Each week, we do a video during our Sunday training run. We talk about disabilities, living with humble courage, and all the stuff in between.

Life often takes us by surprise. Sometimes in hard ways and sometimes in impactful and meaningful ways. I am glad to be able to share this meaningful opportunity with you.

If you would like to learn more, please visit our website at humblycourageous.com.

Until next time …

Amy Shinneman is a former National Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, disability blogger, freelance writer, wife, and mom of two boys. She is the recipient of the Reporter’s Winter 2025 Ink-Stained Wretch award. You can find her blog at humblycourageous.com and reach her on Instagram @ashinneman.