Who We Are
Who We Are
BUILDING COMMUNITY FOR ALL
From Breakthrough to Bronze: The Story of a Paralympic Champion
Thu, Sep 25
|Dayton Metro Library Main Branch
An unforgettable and thought-provoking evening featuring Blake Haxton for Dayton Metro Library's Social Justice Speaker Series.
Time & Location
Sep 25, 2025, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Dayton Metro Library Main Branch, 215 E 3rd St, Dayton, OH 45402, USA
About the Event
Blake will discuss his heroic journey to becoming a paralympic champion. In March of 2009, Haxton was in his senior year of High School in Columbus, Ohio when he contracted Necrotizing Fasciitis, more commonly called the flesh-eating disease. Over the course of three days Blake went from being the captain of his school rowing team and a Division I college rowing recruit to suffering major organ failure and the amputation of both of his legs. Blake was released from the hospital after over twenty major surgeries and three months of inpatient care.
Life-threatening medical complications notwithstanding, Blake enrolled at The Ohio State University the following fall and earned his B.S. in finance in 2013. Blake then enrolled at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, earning a JD in 2016, and returned to the sport of rowing.
Since then, Blake has made nine consecutive U.S. Rowing Teams, initially in the…