American Icon: Aprylle Gilbert, Jake Olson, Andrew Hamilton

 

Chances are you’ve never heard the name Aprylle Gilbert.

Neither did we until this week. That’s when the 46-year-old musician turned endurance runner ended up in Provincetown, where we happen to own a few stores and, more importantly, where she concluded a cross country jaunt that started on May 11 in Long Beach, California.

She averaged 30 to 40 miles each day, logging a total of 3,652 miles as she took a personal journey across US Route 6, all in the name of charity. Gilbert was running to raise money and awareness for the Washington United Youth Center which provides support, mentoring and services for disadvantaged youth in her hometown of San Jose, California.

But her feat was as much a statement of what one can accomplish when they set their mind to accomplishing a goal. In its entirety her goal seemed unsurmountable. But when broken into more modest, digestible pieces – call it the one-day at a time approach – it’s not so crazy.

If you look, there are uplifting stories like this everywhere; stories of people overcoming the odds and accomplishing feats that most people would think impossible.

 Take Jake Olson. He’s blind, losing one eye at 10 months old and the other at the age of 12. But this month, the USC freshman practiced with the sixth ranked Trojans as a long snapper. That he’s gotten this far is remarkable. But it’s not his ultimate goal. One day, he wants to play in an actual college game (read more about him here) and we can’t wait for that day to come.

Then there’s Andrew Hamilton. This summer, the 40-year-old embarked on a journey to hike all 58 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. He completed it.

In 9 days, 21 hours and 51 minutes.

Every day, there are people like Gilbert, Olson and Hamilton, all finding new ways to stretch the limits of what humans can achieve.  They are just like you, only finding ways they can become icons, one mountain (or cross country jaunt) at a time.

So now we’re challenging you to #BeYourOwnIcon. We’re offering a 20% discount on all our running sunglasses, golfing sunglasses and boating sunglasses. Just use the code ICON15 through the end of October when checking out, and you’ll be on your way to becoming an icon.