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The Tenderness Tour
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2015 Tenderness Tour

On September 7th, 2015, nationally recognized activist Richard Propes headed out on his 26th Annual Tenderness Tour. This year's event included a 62-mile wheelchair ride across the full-length of the Cardinal Greenway from Marion, Indiana to Richmond, Indiana along with community service days in Marion, Muncie, Randolph County, and Richmond, Indiana.

All proceeds from the 2015 Tenderness Tour went to Arc of Indiana's Erskine Green Training Institute.

The Arc strives to empower people and inspire change in many ways , including expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We not only advocate for change, we are working to be part of that change by developing the Erskine Green Training Institute and the nation’s first teaching hotel – the Courtyard Muncie at Horizon Convention Center.

After receiving training at the institute, individuals will apply those skills through an internship at the Courtyard Muncie, developed by our for-profit affiliate, Arc Innovations. Other internship opportunities are available at the Thr3e Wiseman restaurant that will be located at the Courtyard Muncie and at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

The Courtyard Muncie at Horizon Convention Center opened in December, 2015. The Erskine Green Training Institute opened to students in January, 2016. It was the goal of the 2015 Tenderness Tour to raise enough funds, estimated to be between $9 - 12,000, to provide one full scholarship so that a person with a disability will be able to attend this groundbreaking opportunity for persons with disabilities in Indiana. Tenderness Tour Founder/Director Richard Propes, in addition to being a paraplegic/double amputee with spina bifida, is an eight-year employee of the State of Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services and has long credited his own decision to leave life on Social Security Disability and enter the workforce as a vital step on his own road to healing and empowerment. After 25 years of the Tenderness Tour, Propes is working to establish the Tenderness Center, an art gallery and creative space celebrating "the art of social justice," in Central Indiana.

2015 Tenderness Tour - September 7 - 11, 2015

September 7, 2015 - Arrive in Marion, Indiana, Possible Evening Event

September 8, 2015 - Wheel from Marion to Muncie w/Evening Event

September 9, 2015 - Wheel from Muncie to Losantville w/Evening Event

September 10, 2015 - Wheel From Losantville to Richmond w/Evening Event

September 11, 2015 - Return Home

Additional Events
  • From August 13 - 23, 2015, The Tenderness Tour was proud to be the presenting sponsor for longtime tour friend Rick Garrett's "Laughing Sober," a show in the 2015 IndyFringe Live Theatre Festival.
     
  • In June 2015, Richard once again participated in the annual Race Away From Domestic Violence, with proceeds going to the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The event started as a Tenderness Tour event 12 years ago and ICADV has continued the event ever since.
About the Tenderness Tour

Since 1989, Indianapolis activist Richard Propes has wheeled nearly 5,000 miles raising thousands of dollars in what he calls a grassroots effort to create a kinder, more inspired world through The Tenderness Tour. This is his story.

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The Tenderness Tour
5115 Devon Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46226
tendernesstour@ameritech.net