{"id":298526,"date":"2026-10-02T18:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/298526\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T18:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:44:14","slug":"im-able-workout-honors-founder-chris-kaag-carries-his-legacy-forward-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/298526\/","title":{"rendered":"IM ABLE workout honors founder Chris Kaag, carries his legacy forward | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>READING, Pa. \u2013 Thursday night, members of the IM ABLE community kept moving, just as founder Chris Kaag taught them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs an organization, we can honor Chris by having this honorable workout for him with his favorite program, his favorite class,\u201d said Alex Pilkington, CEO of the <a href=\"https:\/\/imablefoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IM ABLE Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kaag served in the Marine Corps. A rare disease called AMN eventually limited his movement.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/berks\/berks-county-mourns-marine-veteran-im-able-founder-chris-kaag\/article_49c53b9f-0f9e-4dfd-abc6-0290d7501f30.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Berks County mourns marine veteran, IM ABLE founder Chris Kaag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Berks County mourns marine veteran, IM ABLE founder Chris Kaag\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6abed5a538877.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tnt-summary\">The organization remains committed to carrying forward the mission that Kaag dedicated his life to building.<\/p>\n<p>For Kalah Schlott, Kaag was more than the founder of IM ABLE. He was someone who believed in her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I went to USA Games, he goes, \u2018I\u2019m so proud of you.\u2019 He would motivate us more,\u201d Schlott said.<\/p>\n<p>Schlott swims with Berks County Special Olympics and says IM ABLE has been a key to her success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was recently at the USA Games in Minnesota, and I am nominated for World Games in Chile, Santiago de Chile,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Fiorentino first experienced the IM ABLE community nearly four years ago. It did not take long for him to become part of it.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/berks\/no-excuses-just-move-inspiring-founder-of-berks-nonprofit-chris-kaag-dead-at-50\/article_25fecb86-db8c-4bee-b8dd-a8345aa6a48a.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"&#x2018;No excuses, just move&#x2019;: Inspiring founder of Berks nonprofit, Chris Kaag, dead at 50\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"&#x2018;No excuses, just move&#x2019;: Inspiring founder of Berks nonprofit, Chris Kaag, dead at 50\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6abdd2a2831cf.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tnt-summary\">The founder of IM ABLE in Berks County has died at age 50.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks later, I signed up to volunteer, and I\u2019ve loved it ever since,\u201d said Fiorentino, vice president of the IM ABLE board.<\/p>\n<p>Kaag founded IM ABLE in 2007. The organization now serves about 4,500 people each year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re living right now today is what we\u2019re going to carry forward. It\u2019s what Chris charged us to do,\u201d Pilkington said.<\/p>\n<p>The people working out together Thursday night showed what Kaag built: a community moving forward and a legacy that continues changing lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Thursday night, members of the IM ABLE community kept moving, just as founder Chris Kaag&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[122832,122828,524,122829,25322,128,130,129,30093,15275],"class_list":["post-298526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-amn","tag-chris-kaag","tag-community","tag-im-able-foundation","tag-marine-corps","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-special-olympics","tag-workout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}