Troy Karnes just wrote a really good book. It’s about surviving cancer, which he battled in 2021. It’s also about learning to recognize the symptoms and ultimately find strategies for raising a child on the autism spectrum. And perhaps most personally, it’s about facing alcohol addiction and what it takes to repair the damage that substance abuse can have on friends and family.
In a short span of time, the author faced a heavy collision of all these things. It resulted in No Silver Bullets, a personal development book that ultimately asserts that when the going gets tough, the solution should be the daily management of chronic issues. People often try to solve acute problems, Karnes shows there’s no quick fix.
But even before Karnes got cancer himself, he started a charity that focuses on raising funds to find a cure for the deadly disease. After losing a close companion, Geoff Shudzt, in 2019, he and a group of friends and colleagues started the Fuck Cancer Stay Positive Foundation. “His mantra was fuck cancer, stay positive. He was skiing til the day he died. It’s a mantra that everyone can get behind,” said Karnes.
Schudtz passed quickly and unexpectedly after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was discovered, already in stage four. Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest to detect, and the survival rate in 2019 was a staggeringly low 9%. It’s the third leading cause of cancer-related death.
After Shudzt’s untimely end, Karnes and his cohort, including Schudzt’s widow, quickly mobilized to start an easily-replicable, cheaply-funded and remarkably joyous way to raise funds for organizations researching new technologies for early detection. In 2020, Dunk For a Cure was born.
While the first few iterations were done digitally due to the pandemic, the event has grown to a full-fledged party, where people raise funds for the opportunity to sit in a dunk tank. During their 15-minute slot, participants are knocked into a 500-gallon vat by friends, family, rivals and ill-willed strangers. Depending on how good the crowd’s aim is, they often spend more time in the water than on their precarious perch. Early subscribers will often raise somewhere in the ballpark of $2,000 for the chance to get soaked. Since its inception, FCSP has raised over $780,000, all of which has been donated either to Lustgarten, the biggest foundation for pancreatic cancer research, or a local charity in one of the five cities that hosts the annual event. Each summer, a dunk is hosted in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Denver, Baltimore and Richmond.
On Saturday, August 9, Dunk for a Cure will return to the Mile High for its third live iteration at Improper City. Karnes will be there reprising his role as “carnival barker,” hyping up the crowd and trying to draw in walk-up participants. “Come one, come all, dunk your asshole friend for a good cause.”
Karnes says the event has typically attracted a few unexpected newcomers. “We get a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties. All of them have at least one jerk in the group,” Karnes laughed. Unexpected entrants aren’t required to deliver the same amount as those who have fundraised in advance. There is an optional but encouraged donation for anyone who wants to join the fun. Shorts and a T-shirt will be provided for anyone opting for a last-minute splash. Since 2019, the survival rate for pancreatic cancer has risen from 9 to 13%.
Karnes says Improper City has been the perfect venue to host the event. “I wanted a place downtown that would get some foot traffic. I figured we could get some randos in the dunk tank,” he said. “If I could have a dream location in Denver, this would be it,” he continued, noting that outreach is a big part of the bash’s pageantry.
Karnes and his team also designed the structure with something akin to franchising in mind. “When I was looking at other ways organizations like this make money, they looked big and expensive. I’d love to get a Dunk for a Cure in every city in America,” added Karnes, noting that, unlike a 5K, the dunk has almost zero footprint and can be put on affordably. “Other than the tank, everything we use to put on the event can be fit in a midsize SUV.”
While Karnes says his passion for FCSP has been burning bright since 2019, he admits that his own experience with the disease has strengthened his resolve. “I thought the mantra was cool before. It turned from something I liked into something I needed,” he said. “People will ask me ‘Troy, you had bone cancer, why are your raising money for pancreatic cancer?’ I got to this before the cancer got to me.”
Dunk for a Cure will take place on Saturday. August 9, at Improper City at 3201 Walnut Street #107, Denver. It goes from 2 – 6 p.m.
Karnes hosts a weekly blog post called HALT on Humpday that gives actionable advice on how to deal with being Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. Folks can also sign up for weekly email updates here.
No Silver Bullets will be available on Amazon starting August 14. It is currently available on his website.
Photos courtesy of Troy Karnes.
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