RiseUP for Something Greater This September

What if every step you took could help create greater opportunity, connection, and inclusion for someone in your community?

That is the idea behind the RiseUP Elevation Challenge, a monthlong movement and fundraising challenge taking place from September 1 through September 30, 2026.

Participants are invited to walk, hike, run, climb stairs, or use a treadmill incline as they work toward gaining 5,000 feet of elevation throughout September. The challenge can be completed from nearly anywhere, whether that means exploring a Colorado trail, walking through a hilly neighborhood, climbing the stairs at work, training at a gym, or creating a personal route one activity at a time.

The challenge is designed to bring people together while raising support for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and neurodiversity. These funds will go towards things like transportation, classroom needs, lunches for our students, beds for our housing, or even a brand new piano for our school.

It is more than a fitness goal. It is an invitation to move with purpose, connect with your community, and help more people rise.

A Challenge Built Around Community, Not Competition Alone

The Elevation Challenge was developed around a simple but powerful idea: everyone faces different mountains.

Some challenges are visible. Others are not. Every day, individuals supported by RiseUP build confidence, develop new skills, find employment, strengthen relationships, and work toward greater independence.

The goal of the Elevation Challenge is not to suggest that anyone needs to be rescued. It is to invite the broader community to move alongside one another and rise together.

You do not need to be an experienced athlete. You do not need to summit a Colorado mountain. You simply need to choose a meaningful goal, begin moving, and invite others to support the journey.

How Does the RiseUP Elevation Challenge Work?

Participants choose between two ways to complete the challenge.

The Elevation Challenge

The primary challenge is to accumulate 5,000 feet of elevation during September.

You can gain elevation through activities such as:

• Walking or running through a hilly neighborhood
• Hiking a local trail
• Climbing stairs
• Using a StairMaster
• Increasing the incline on a treadmill
• Combining several different activities throughout the month

Participants track their total elevation as they work toward the 5,000 foot goal. The challenge is virtual, meaning you can participate wherever you live or travel. The official registration page lists the location as “Any City, Any State,” although RiseUP’s campaign outreach is especially focused on communities across Colorado.

The Accessible Distance Challenge

Not everyone can reasonably complete an elevation based goal, and meaningful participation should not depend on a person’s physical ability, health, mobility, location, or access to hills and trails.

The Distance Challenge provides an accessible alternative for people who cannot complete the elevation goal. Participants can instead establish and track a distance based goal that reflects their individual abilities and circumstances. The challenge welcomes people using wheelchairs and other mobility supports, as well as anyone for whom a distance goal is more appropriate.

This option reflects RiseUP’s commitment to person centered support. Every participant should be able to choose a meaningful way to take part, rather than being expected to meet one rigid definition of achievement.

Who Can Participate?

The RiseUP Elevation Challenge is open to individuals and groups.

You can register on your own, participate with friends or family, or create a team with people from your:

• Workplace
• Church or faith community
• Gym or fitness studio
• Hiking or running club
• Neighborhood
• School community
• Local business
• Nonprofit organization
• Community group

Teams can work toward shared elevation, distance, and fundraising goals while encouraging one another throughout September. They can also compete for recognition and celebrate what they accomplish together.

A Colorado Springs business might create an employee stair challenge. A Denver neighborhood could organize weekly walks. A family could track its combined elevation throughout the month. A gym could encourage members to participate through treadmill incline or StairMaster workouts.

There is no single correct way to complete the challenge. The purpose is to create movement, connection, and impact in a way that works for each participant and team.

Why Does the Elevation Challenge Matter?

Funds raised through the Elevation Challenge help support RiseUP’s programs for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and neurodiversity.

RiseUP’s mission is to inspire and empower people to thrive through customized support that responds to the needs of each person, family, and community. Its work is rooted in person centered services, dignity, respect, adaptability, and community building.

RiseUP provides services that include:

• RiseUP School and Day Treatment for students through age 21
• Children’s residential services
• Adult day programs
• Adult residential services
• Supported employment
• Family caregiver support
• Supported and independent living
• Community participation opportunities

RiseUP has served Colorado communities since 1973 and maintains offices and programs in both Denver and Colorado Springs. Through its services, RiseUP helps individuals build skills for greater success at home, in the workplace, and throughout the broader community.

Funds raised for RiseUP through the challenge help sustain essential education, residential, adult day, independent living, employment, and community based programs.

Supporting Participating Nonprofit Partners

The Elevation Challenge also gives participants an opportunity to support another nonprofit organization alongside RiseUP.

During registration, participants may select one of the challenge’s participating nonprofit partners. Half of the proceeds raised through that participant’s fundraising page will support the selected partner organization.

This structure allows one participant’s outreach to strengthen two meaningful missions. It also gives nonprofit partners a way to engage their own supporters in an active, community centered campaign while expanding the collective impact of the challenge.

For nonprofit organizations across Colorado, including those serving the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs, and the broader Front Range, the challenge offers an opportunity to introduce supporters to a new fundraising experience while building relationships with RiseUP and other community partners.

Fundraising, Milestones, and Rewards

Every participant can create a personal fundraising page and invite friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, and community members to support their goal.

Fundraising can be as simple as sharing why you joined, explaining what you hope to accomplish, and giving people a clear opportunity to contribute.

Participants can also reach fundraising milestones that unlock challenge rewards. Current incentives listed on the registration website include:

• A challenge T-shirt with registration
• An embroidered baseball cap
• A premium Elevation Challenge hoodie
• A hydration system
• Registration reimbursement
• A complimentary Awards Banquet ticket
• Entries into prize drawings

The more participants raise, the more opportunities they have to earn rewards while expanding their impact.

The prizes add energy to the experience, but the most important result is the support generated for programs that help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and neurodiversity thrive.

How Can People Participate in Colorado Springs?

Colorado Springs participants have many ways to build elevation into their September routines.

Some may choose outdoor hikes or work toward their goal near Pikes Peak. Others may prefer neighborhood walks, stairs, gym workouts, or treadmill incline sessions. Teams can also organize group walks, accessible movement activities, or friendly workplace challenges.

Because RiseUP operates programs and an office in Colorado Springs, local participation creates a direct connection between the challenge and the community being served. RiseUP’s Colorado Springs office is located at 5045 List Drive, and the organization provides programs for children, adults, and families in the region.

Colorado Springs businesses, churches, gyms, clubs, families, and nonprofit organizations can participate by forming teams, becoming sponsors, sharing the challenge, or supporting participant fundraising pages.

How Can People Participate in Denver?

Participants in Denver and the surrounding metro area can complete the challenge through neighborhood walks, city park routes, office stair challenges, fitness center workouts, or trips to nearby Front Range trails.

Denver companies may use the challenge as an employee wellness and community engagement initiative. Families, churches, fitness groups, advocates, and neighborhood organizations can also create teams and work toward shared goals.

RiseUP’s Denver office is located at 3443 South Galena Street, Suite 310. RiseUP provides adult day, residential, caregiver, supported employment, and other services for individuals and families in the Denver area.

Although the challenge is virtual and open beyond Colorado, the campaign’s primary outreach is designed to reach communities throughout the state, with particular emphasis on the Front Range.

What Happens at the End of the Challenge?

The movement challenge ends on September 30, but the community celebration continues into October.

Participants, nonprofit partners, sponsors, and supporters will be invited to the RiseUP Elevation Challenge Awards Banquet. The event will recognize:

• Top fundraisers
• Highest elevation achievements
• Team accomplishments
• Nonprofit partners
• Inspiring participant stories
• The challenge’s collective community impact

Participants who reach the designated fundraising milestone can earn a complimentary banquet ticket.

The banquet gives everyone an opportunity to celebrate more than individual totals. It recognizes what can happen when a community chooses to move, fundraise, and rise together.

How to Get Started

Joining the RiseUP Elevation Challenge takes only a few steps.

1. Register

Choose either the Elevation Challenge or the accessible Distance Challenge.

2. Create or Join a Team

Participate individually, join an existing team, or start one with your family, workplace, church, gym, club, neighborhood, or organization.

3. Set Your Goals

Choose your elevation or distance target and establish a fundraising goal that feels meaningful.

4. Share Your Page

Invite friends, family members, coworkers, and community contacts to donate, register, join your team, or share your challenge.

5. Track Your Progress

Record your movement throughout September and celebrate each milestone along the way.

6. Share the Journey

Post photos, videos, fundraising updates, and team accomplishments. Tag RiseUP and use the official challenge hashtag:

#UP4TheChallenge

Participants are encouraged to share their progress so the broader community can see the challenge in action and help amplify its impact.

Important Registration Dates

Participants who register by August 14 are expected to receive their challenge T-shirt before September begins.

Registration remains open through September 15, allowing people to join even after the monthlong challenge has started.

Registering early gives participants more time to create a team, personalize a fundraising page, invite supporters, and prepare for September.

How High Will You Rise?

The RiseUP Elevation Challenge is not only about how many feet you climb.

It is about what those feet represent.

Every walk can create awareness. Every team can bring new people together. Every fundraising page can introduce another person to RiseUP’s mission. Every shared post can help the challenge reach a new Colorado community.

Whether you participate from Colorado Springs, Denver, elsewhere along the Front Range, or another part of Colorado, your movement can help create something greater.

Choose your goal. Invite your people. Move in the way that works for you.

Then make every foot count.