Back in 2012, things were going pretty well for Kevin Burkart of Prior Lake to hit his goal of jumping out of an airplane 300 times in one day to help raise awareness and money for research of Parkinson’s Disease, an affliction that affects his dad.
Then he went snowmobiling and got into a horrific accident, scuttling the idea. A spinal cord injury caused permanent loss of the use of his left arm. He had to come up with a way to parachute with one arm.
He made his first set up jumps — 100 — in 2008, and in 2013 he was able to make it to 151 jumps.
Now, Burkart is going for 300 jumps, starting a minute after midnight on Wednesday.
He told KARE 11 last month he’s got the easy job; he just has to fall out of an airplane all day. “The pilots and packers have the hard job,” he said.
Burkart will be falling out of his airplanes over Skydive Twin Cities in Baldwin, Wis.