Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
There are so many kind, compassionate, wonderful people out there who want to do good. There is nothing we want to do more than provide them with the resources they need to continue their mission and expand their reach.
By Micah Mertes
Creighton alumni Michael and Brandy Rea have made it their mission to serve the special needs community in as many ways as possible — supporting care, research, job training, housing and opportunities for these individuals to more meaningfully connect with the world around them.
“When you learn about all these different programs and causes supporting those with special needs, you’re just like, ‘Wow, there are so many kind, compassionate, wonderful people out there who want to do good,’” said Michael Rea. “There is nothing we want to do more than provide them with the resources they need to continue their mission and expand their reach. It’s profoundly rewarding to be a part of this.”
Nearly three years ago, Michael, PHARMD'07, and Brandy (Kopecky) Rea, JD’07, sold the business they founded, Rx Savings Solutions, for $875 million, leaving the company the following year. Michael started RxSS as a one-man operation in 2008. Brandy, then a corporate healthcare attorney with the Kansas City law firm Lathrop GPM, helped Michael get the company up and running before eventually joining him as full-time “in-house” counsel. (“That was the only way I could afford a lawyer at that point,” Michael said. “I had to marry one.”)
Today, the Reas live in Kansas City with their three children: Brody, Carson and Stella. Their eldest, Brody, 14, has profound autism.
“Brody is tremendously inspirational to us,” Michael said. “Because while he has so many things that are harder for him, he also experiences the world in a beautiful way. He doesn’t care what house you live in or what car you drive. He cares about people being good to each other. He has character traits that everyone wishes they had. He keeps us all grounded on the things that truly matter.”
Inspired by Brody, the Reas used funds from the Rx Savings Solutions sale to establish the Michael and Brandy Rea Family Foundation, which supports nonprofits serving the special needs community.
Programs and causes they’ve supported so far include:
- Camp Tekakwitha, a Kansas City summer camp that includes one week each year for special needs children and their families. With a large grant provided by the Reas, the camp was able to pave trails and remodel bathrooms and cabins for accessibility. Their funds will also remodel the camp's zipline to be "zero-entry," meaning that children will no longer have to climb a pole to access the zipline, making the activity accessible to all.
- A genetics research program at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City and the University of Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (where Brody was first diagnosed with autism).
- And causes as wide-ranging as a local food pantry, a housing development and a program that makes family activities like skiing and horseback riding more accessible.
“What we’ve found with Brody’s peers, their parents and our friends is that there’s this gap,” Michael said. “There’s a gap in job training. There’s a gap in living and congregation spaces. We’re trying to focus our dollars on helping this community to fill those gaps.”
The Reas recently made a $1 million gift to Haven for Special People, a nonprofit that is building an inclusive and accessible apartment complex in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin — 35 miles north of Michael Rea’s hometown of Lansing, Iowa. At the Haven for Special People apartments, individuals with disabilities will live alongside non-disabled residents. Through this community, writes Haven for Special People, “We seek to create a sense of family and help reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation.”
The reality, the Reas said, is that “children and adults with special physical or intellectual needs are often hidden from society. The causes and programs that appeal to us not only serve these individuals but also make them more visible.”
Such visibility helps those with special needs, but it helps everyone else even more so, Brandy said.
“The community of individuals with special needs is inspiring and beautiful. We are better people when we get to be around them and when they share their world with us.”
Some of the causes the Reas support they discovered through their everyday experience trying to share more of the world with Brody.
One of the Reas’ favorite things to do is ski. Their younger children — Carson and Stella — are naturals. The only drawback to their shared passion for the slopes: It’s never been something they can enjoy with Brody, at least not until recently.
They learned about a program at Montana’s Big Sky called Eagle Mount, which provides accessible skiing and snowboarding to people with disabilities, cancer and other conditions that cause mobility issues. With Eagle Mount’s help, Brody joined his family skiing for the first time. This involved Brody being secured into a special "sit ski" sled guided by an Eagle Mount volunteer snowboarder, who led him safely down the mountain. The Reas recently awarded Eagle Mount a grant so more families can share this experience.
Though their first years as startup founders were lean financially, the Reas said they’re fortunate to now be able to afford the resources, therapies and care that families with special needs children require. Many families cannot. With every gift the Reas make through their foundation, those families are at the forefront of their minds.
“We have seen the effect these opportunities have had in Brody’s life, in our whole family’s lives,” Brandy said. “We want to unlock these experiences for as many people as we can.”
Next school year, Michael and Brandy’s roles as parents and philanthropists will come full circle, when Brody joins one of the first major causes the foundation funded: the Blue Valley Food Pantry.
The pantry — supported through the LIFT program in the Rea children’s school district — serves multiple goods. It provides food for those who need it most. It provides special needs individuals (particularly those on the autism spectrum like Brody) with training, skills, and more opportunities for socialization. It gives an often neglected and invisible community the chance to not only be part of the world but also make it a little better.
“Everyone deserves a purposeful life,” Brandy said.
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Read more: How a Creighton alum's $875 million idea helped change an industry
