Meet Robyn Benincasa | Founder and Minister of Dreams, The Project Athena Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Robyn Benincasa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Robyn, how does your business help the community?
My 501c3 non profit, The Project Athena Foundation, helps Survivors of medical or traumatic setbacks live an adventurous dream as part of their recovery! In other words, we help people who have had big setbacks in their life create their huge, epic COMEBACK story through endurance adventures, like hiking all the way across the Grand Canyon in one day, or kayaking and cycling 120 miles from Key Largo to Key West over three days, or hiking 45 miles all the way across Zion National Park in 2 days. We train our Survivors for 4-5 months before each adventure, and outfit them with everything they need to succeed. Then my Trail Angel Team, along with some awesome Fundraising Gods and Goddesses who have raised the money to make these dreams happen for our grant recipients, ensures that we all get across the finish line,… together… as one big team!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I just retired from 23 years as a San Diego Firefighter. Before that I was a semi professional (aka broke) adventure racer for a few years while waiting for the fire department to hire me. :). Out of college, and during the “panty hose and heels’ era I was in pharmaceutical and medical supply sales.

Now I’m a keynote speaker by accident! After my adventure racing team won the Raid Gauloises world championships in Ecuador, Fast Company Magazine featured our team in an article entitled “Extreme Teamwork”, in which they looked at some of the world’s most consistently high performing teams (ie from NASA, Industrial Light and Magic, crazy adventure racers) to see what they could learn about our brand of teamwork and how they could apply it to fast moving companies. Right around the time the article came out, Fast Company was holding a readers conference, and they asked someone from my team to come talk to their readers about how we create the kind of Extreme Teamwork that consistently wins the “world’s toughest races”. I was the newest member of the team, so it rolled down hill onto me. :). I thought i was going to die as I approached the podium to talk about what I called “The Essential Elements of Human Synergy”. I have no recollection of it now, but evidently it hit home with a few people. I was approached right afterwards by a Zone VP from Starbucks and send on a 5 city tour to talk to all of his Store Managers. And I’ve been speaking for corporate clients about teambuilding, leadership, and teamwork ever since! I love it. It is still scary every time I take the stage. But people are genuinely moved by and inspired by the stories of how we build and lead world class teams, and I know I’m making a real difference in their lives. My speaking career truly embodies the definition of Luck, which is opportunity+ preparation. Who knew that these races were preparing me to help others create winning teams? And then this crazy opportunity with Fast Company knocked on my door. I feel truly blessed by all of it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love all the Beer Garden vibes in Denver! My husband is a dark beer freak, so we’re always searching for fun places to go.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our inspiring Athenas (female Survivors) and Zeuses (male survivors) are the reason we get up in the wee hours and get to these epic start (and finish) lines!

All of our trail angels and crew members who support our Project Athena Adventures and help create the magic on the course and behind the scenes are amazing. My husband, Jeff Akens is our crew leader, and he’s the very best human on earth. He just retired from 28 years as a firefighter in both Antarctica and San Diego Fire, and he is the great and powerful Oz of the ground crew who chases us around with bags and gear. Our event planner, Jeri Miuccio, also a retired San Diego Firefighter, is truly amazing, and an epic multitasker. Retired San Diego Fire Captain, Randy Delotch is the soul of our crew, and the best bear hugger in the biz. My Trail Angel team who in on the trail, bike and boats with our adventurers are equally epic humans, including Best Ranger winner and world class adventure racer, Blaine Reeves; San Diego Firefigther/ Paramedic Stacey Nichols (first woman on the SDFD helicopter crew!); crazy lovable Aussie adventure racers Addie Goodvibes (yes thats his real name); Jack London, multisport stud and RN; and my nephew and adventure supermodel , Danny Cox. Best TEAM EVER

I also would like to thank both of my hips for completely running out of cartilage after 20 years of ultra endurance racing. If I hadn’t had 6 hip replacements (don’t get me started. The first 4 failed), Project Athena would have never been born! After my first hip replacement, I decided to turn my own setback into a comeback and to refocus my athletic efforts on ultra endurance kayaking paddling races (which is the sport I was truly meant to do! And I never would have known). And the joy of rediscovering my own inner badass again after months on crutches and canes made me want to give that gift to other people!

Website: Www.projectathena.org or www.worldclassteams.com or www.robynbenincasa.com

Instagram: @projectathena @robynbenincasa @thesanctuaryatsacredmesa

Linkedin: Robyn Benincasa

Youtube: Probably just search for the project athena foundation or robyn benincasa