The #LiveLikeRoo Project
We are incredibly proud to have as members inspiring, philanthropic, and community-minded individuals who give of themselves to make our world a better place. Midtown Athletic Club in Palatine, IL member Kelly Michael works at a no-kill pit bull shelter in Illinois. Kelly fell in love with and adopted one of their dogs, who was named Roo (short for Roosevelt). Soon after adopting him, Kelly was devastated to learn that he had cancer and would only live another six months. Determined to give Roo the wonderful life he had never had, she created a bucket list of fun activities to do with Roo in the time he had left, and she documented his adventures on the popular Facebook page Live Like Roo. She also created the #LiveLikeRoo hashtag to inspire people to treat their dogs more like members of their families and to help other families who have dogs with untreatable medical conditions. She had another project idea in mind too. Kelly and her sister-in-law Amanda Michael approached one of the tennis coaches at Midtown Palatine to ask for some tennis balls. They asked for 100 balls, but we gave them nearly 1,000! On each ball, they wrote the hashtag #LiveLikeRoo and took them to dog parks in the Chicago area. They asked the dog owners to let their pups play with the balls and then leave them at the park for the next dogs to play with. We're thrilled to offer #LiveLikeRoo tennis balls at the front desk of our Palatine club for members to take for their own dogs. Snap a photo of your pooch playing with the ball, and post it to the club's Facebook page. We would love to see them. Sadly, Roo passed away on September 8, but his legacy of love lives on in the work Kelly continues to do for other pit bulls in need. Kelly works with the Bryan & Amanda Bickell Foundation, founded by Chicago Blackhawks left-winger Bryan Bickell, his wife Amanda, and their good friend Alicia. Kelly continues to foster and rescue dogs, and works tirelessly to place them in their forever homes.