Flash 5K to Benefit Local South Bay Charities

Michael Reisman • August 23, 2023

Race Beneficiaries Include College of Adaptive Arts and the American Cancer Society

 


(Saratoga, Calif., August 23, 2023) On Saturday, September 9, Western Digital will host a 5K run/walk which will benefit the College of Adaptive Arts and the American Cancer Society.

 

The “Flash” 5K event will take place at 9am at Western Digital’s Great Oaks San Jose Campus and will be offered both in person and virtually.

 

College of Adaptive Arts (CAA), a 501 c (3) non-profit organization, is a unique institution providing collegiate education to adults with differing abilities. It currently serves 224 students across 12+ states, the majority of whom have been diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including Down syndrome and autism.

 

“CAA’s current one and only recurring state funding stream is now being out-paced by the overwhelming demand for these equitable collegiate services, so we rely heavily on fundraisers, grants, and individual donations to continue our mission of providing lifelong, higher education to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said DeAnna Pursai, co-founder and Executive Director of CAA.

 

The Flash 5K is free to enter, however donations are strongly encouraged.

 

“Western’s Digital’s deep belief in empowerment and resilience led us to select College of Adaptive Arts and the American Cancer Society as beneficiaries of the Flash 5K fun run/walk,” said Rob Soderbery, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Flash Business Unit. “Together, we will continue striving for a world where every individual and every community can adapt, thrive, and conquer whatever challenges come their way.”

 

WHO:                    Western Digital

WHAT:                   “Flash” 5K benefitting College of Adaptive Arts and the American Cancer Society

WHERE:                 5601 Western Oaks Pkwy, San Jose, CA 95119

WHEN:                  Saturday, September 9 (Registration opens at 7am and the race begins at 9am)

INFO:                     https://www.runtheday.com/register/detail/flash-5k-for-caa-cancer-awareness-2023

 

ABOUT WESTERN DIGITAL’S GLOBAL GIVING AND DOING

Western Digital's Global Giving & Doing function honors the company's commitment to exemplifying corporate social responsibility through employee volunteerism, community grants, scholarships, product donations, and when necessary, disaster relief. Its global philanthropic focus areas include STEM Education, Hunger Relief, Equality, and the Environment.


ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ADAPTIVE ARTS:

College of Adaptive Arts is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing a lifelong, equitable collegiate experience to adults with special needs who historically have not had access to college education. The vision of College of Adaptive Arts (CAA) is to empower adults with special needs to creatively transform perception of disability. CAA is an institution of higher education where adults have opportunities to learn from a diverse and rich curriculum that will enable them to live a full and empowered life as successful, contributing members of the community. For more information, or to volunteer and/or donate visit https://www.collegeofadaptivearts.org/


ABOUT THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY:

The mission of the American Cancer Society is to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. For more information, visit https://www.cancer.org/

Where the System Ends, CAA Begins. We Built the College We Couldn't Find. Story #3: ED Nicole & her son Said

By Nicole Kim • March 9, 2026
When my son, Saïd, was born, we discovered he had Down syndrome. I was 21 years old at the time, and I hadn’t done prenatal testing because it was considered a “low-risk” pregnancy. Suddenly I found myself sitting in doctors’ offices and hearing professionals describe what they believed his future would look like. “He may never learn to read.” “His learning will likely plateau around age four.” “It’s unlikely he will live an independent life.” Those are frightening things to say to a young mother. Thankfully, I didn’t believe them. Instead, I chose to raise my son with the expectation that he would learn , would grow , and would live as full a life as he was capable of living . And he did. When the College of Adaptive Arts started in 2009, Saïd was 19—just the right age for college. We became part of the CAA community and never left. He took classes, performed in the community, and truly blossomed as a young man. Along the way he discovered that he loves theater. He also loves to sing. Don’t give him a microphone—you may never get it back. 🙂 Today, at 35 years old, Saïd lives with a roommate and a caregiving couple. He has a vibrant, joyful, independent life. And he still loves taking classes every semester. My own journey with CAA has been equally meaningful. For most of those years, I was a parent in the community. I soon joined the Board and became a professor. I taught classes like Speaking with Confidence and Joy of Baking , and eventually stepped into the role of Executive Director. But the belief that first guided me as a young mother has never changed. The belief I had in Saïd’s ability to learn, grow, and build a meaningful life is the same belief I hold for every student who walks through the doors of the College of Adaptive Arts. And something remarkable happens when you lead with that belief. Students rise to meet it. When we expect growth, they grow. When we expect contribution, they contribute. When we expect full lives, they build them. At CAA, we don’t define our students by limitations. We define them by possibility. And every semester, they remind us that possibility is far greater than anyone once imagined. -- Nicole Kim Executive Director College of Adaptive Arts

Where the System Ends, CAA Begins. We Built the College We Couldn't Find. CAA Story #2: Dr. Pamela Lindsay

By DeAnna Pursai • March 2, 2026
The Ties That Bind

Where the System Ends, CAA Begins: We Built the College We Couldn't Find. CAA Story #1: Angel E.

By DeAnna Pursai • February 23, 2026
College of Adaptive Arts is beginning a new weekly blog series featuring a story of a CAA student, professor, or parent/care provider each week. We hope you enjoy and can resonate with these stories. If you could comment and share with your networks to amplify this model, we'd be deeply obliged to you: Angel Ellenberger, sister to CAA Co-Founder DeAnna Ellenberger Pursai, grew up in Bluffton, Indiana alongside DeAnna in the 70's and 80's. It was a glorious childhood, full of love, joy, laughter, and sisterhood bonding. Angel was always quite social, and she was a hit wherever she went with the cheerleaders and the community. DeAnna came home from college one summer when Angel was in a postsecondary program (mandatory 18-22 extended years for students in the special education system). At the time, Angel was actively working with a job coach cleaning the desks at the local high school. DeAnna thought to herself, "Cool! That’s what happens to adults when the special ed students leave the school system." About one year to the date, DeAnna came back home to find Angel more than doubled her size and eating a bag of chips on the couch. She asked what had happened, and their mom said that the funding was cut for the job coach program and that Angel didn’t want to attend the one adult day program shared across their 2 rural counties – the only feeder option once you left the special education system. Angel did indeed end up going to the day program after she gained so much weight that she had congestive heart failure in 2000 and almost passed away. Needless to say, it’s been an arduous and tenuous endeavor. Angel is intelligent, perceptive, social, artistic, creative, and comedic. She needed a support system with more opportunities to socialize, learn, engage beyond coloring in local dime store coloring books for hours. That critical gap that Angel experienced sparked the seed of change, and together with her partner and friend Dr. Pamela Lindsay, College of Adaptive Arts was born. DeAnna and Dr. Pam built the college model they couldn’t find and so many around the world also could not find. To those people searching, CAA's message is, "We hear you, we see you, and we’re coming." CAA will not stop until it has garnered the support, awareness, and public and private levers to scale this lifelong collegiate model worldwide to become as widespread, welcoming, and accessible in the education space that Special Olympics provides so robustly in the sports and athletics space. CAA's revolutionary model is proving everyday that inclusive education is not charity; it is sustainable, transformative and a lifelong right.

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