Zack Garner's 7x Fundraiser

Hi, My name is Zack Garner, and I get the privilege of taking part in an amazing adventure called the 7x human Performance Project. This Project consists of seven skydives/base jumps, seven marathons, and seven swims on seven continents in seven days. This mission's primary focus is to gather human performance data and apply it to modern warfighters/first responders by creating a manual to help them reach physiological homeostasis. The other focus is fundraising and raising awareness for the mental health and suicide crisis in the veteran/first responder communities.

About me...

I joined the Army at 18 years old as a Forward Observer. I loved being challenged mentally and physically and often asked myself, "What am I capable of?" I didn't feel like I had been able to fully test my limits, so I volunteered to attend Special Forces Assessment and Selection. I was selected and went on to become a Green Beret with the 7th Special Forces Group. In 2014 I was medically separated from the military after multiple traumatic brain injuries and developing epilepsy.

I was once again faced with the question, "What am I capable of?" My life had changed, but I still wanted to push my limits and see what I could do. I had identified early on that there were not many resources regarding mental health for veterans. I saw that too often; pharmaceutical meds were just being prescribed instead of trying to fix the underlying problems. This cause became my new purpose. I rode a bicycle across the county (and then some), a total of 5500 miles, raising funds for nonpharmaceutical therapies.

Following that, I became an endurance coach for cyclists (primarily triathletes). I had no experience in this and wanted to understand psychologically what my athletes were experiencing. During a 1/2 ironman in 2016, I was struck by a car and was hospitalized due to injuries. Once again, I needed to find a new purpose.

I missed the military community and wasn't done serving my country. I rehabbed my body and was able to deploy overseas as a contractor, completing four more deployments.

In 2020, I pushed my body further than ever before. This time was not by choice. I was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria) in my leg. It later spread into my bones and my heart. Over the next 18 months, I spent roughly ten months in the hospital, had 30+ surgeries, and had two strokes.

This brings us to why this project is so important to me. Once again, I am wondering what I am capable of. I am not one to accept that life has taken its toll, and now I need to try to get through the day with as little pain as possible. I refuse to be a victim of these circumstances, and I will continue to push my body to its breaking point and share my lessons learned with others so that they may have it a little bit easier than myself. In addition, I have struggled with mental health since exiting the military, and I have lost my brothers to suicide. It's time to bend the curve and give our warfighters what they deserve, knowledge and a plan to reach their peak performance after their service ends. Pharmaceuticals and settling for a substandard life are not the answer.

Something needs to change.

Our focus is on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing by working with experts in exercise, physiologists, phycologists, physiatrists, dietitians, and rehabilitation specialists, using special operators as test subjects who have all traveled the same roads through their careers. This mission has already begun and will continue through 2023.

Your donation goes directly to veterans and first responder charities. Below is a link to the beneficiaries and the Human Performance Project. This is a very unique and powerful way to support such worthy causes for those who sacrifice for our freedom.

Human Performance Project

Beneficiaries