Why the red pants?

There is a now famous picture of Mike Yasick, one of the Yasick men who was lost too soon to VEDS, sitting in his office with his feet up on his desk in a pair of bright red pants. The attitude of living fearlessly that is captured in the picture is a wonderful reflection of the person Mike was in spite of his VEDS diagnosis, as well as the way that he ran his office. In 2014, on the one year anniversary of Mike’s passing, Taylor Strategy Partners, a company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, celebrated the first Red Pants Day. They were inspired by the positive and fun work environment that Mike Yasick cultivated in his own workplace and wanted to create a day for colleagues to celebrate each other and show their appreciation and gratitude for those around them. After hearing of the DEFY Foundation’s work, they then generously offered to team up with the Foundation to make Red Pants Day a day for VEDS awareness and fundraising as well. Since then, the Red Pants have been very important to the DEFY Foundation. They now serve as a symbol of VEDS that helps us to honor the memory of Mike, and all those we have loved and lost, and to spread a hopeful and optimistic message of living life to the fullest that we know would make Mike proud.

Read a tribute to the red pants here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/thinktank/Red-pants-in-honor-of-Mike.html