BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — In June 2023, the Garst family felt everything was perfect in their lives when they welcomed their third child, Ruthie, into the world. What came next for them shattered their lives as they were — but now it’s their reason for starting an adaptive gym called Ru’s Roots.
At five weeks old, Ruthie became sick with a blood disorder, and about a week later, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that led to an emergency life flight to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. The Garsts spent 10 days with her there and originally had hope they’d take her home, but when she lost brain activity due to unexpected brain swelling, Ruthie passed away.
“Since then, everything has been a bit of a blur,” Hanna wrote on the Ru’s Roots website. “Clearly marriage is tough after losing a child, and we were hanging on by a thread. My postpartum body and brain were confused, and Dallas was feeling lost.”
Through the grief of losing Ruthie, Hanna and Dallas Garst found purpose in the midst of their pain.
Hanna, a 2014 Auburn University graduate in rehabilitation and disability studies, had a vision nearly 11 years ago about starting an adaptive gym for people with disabilities. While on a couple’s retreat months after losing Ruthie, Dallas felt a calling from God to act on Hanna’s vision.
“Hanna told me, ‘I’ve been praying for like 10 years that when the time was right, you would initiate it and approach me.’ I was like, ‘Well here it is, I guess. Here’s your answer,’” Dallas recalled. “We jumped full force into it, and it’s been amazing.”
Named after their late daughter, Ru’s Roots is a nonprofit foundation with the mission of making fitness accessible for all. The foundation hopes to serve people with disabilities or special needs through personalized fitness programs that are adapted to fit their abilities.
Ru’s Roots was officially established in November 2024. Not a year later, the Garsts hope to open their doors to their newly refurbished training facility in October 2025 for group fitness classes.
The gym will have an area for kickboxing, a strength and resistance training section and a basketball court. The goal is for all clients to stay active and keep moving in the way that best suits them.
The inaugural Ru’s Roots facility is located on 1101 Geneva St. in Suites 301 and 302. They are building a larger facility, which they refer to as their “forever home,” on Waverly Parkway in Opelika and is expected to take two or three years to complete.
“We love when people ask about Ruthie. She is the reason we’re doing this,” Hanna said. “This is the way we can build her legacy because my biggest fear as a mom is people not knowing that she existed… I feel like this was a way that God looked at our hearts and was like, ‘Hey, I get that you’re angry, but I’m calling you to do something big in honor of her.’”
As a result of the Garsts’ hard work and generous giving from the community, Ru’s Roots is off to a better start than anticipated. At their first big fundraiser in July, an adaptive grappling tournament with Jiu Jitsu matches, they raised over $30,000 that allowed them to immediately begin building their facility.
Fundraising is a crucial part of the Garsts’ mission, as workouts will be free for all participants. The staff will also be volunteer-based.
“Our goal is to never have any barriers for anybody to walk in these doors,” Dallas said. “We don’t charge any fees or memberships or anything like that. We’re trying to do everything based off of donations and fundraising and community endeavors.”
Ru’s Roots is a project fueled by passion and a heart to serve people with disabilities.
Hanna was introduced to the disabled community in the Auburn-Opelika area when she was an intern at Storybook Farm during college. Upon graduation, she worked as a trainer at Kage Fit, where she held private lessons and worked with kids with autism doing Jiu Jitsu and other forms of strength training.
Where Hanna first found her passion for working with people with disabilities is where Dallas found healing that led him to the Ru’s Roots.
After the passing of Ruthie, the Garsts brought their two older kids, Bodhi (5) and Frankie (4), to Storybook Farm as part of a grief counseling program. While seeing the joy it brought to families like his to watch the kids ride horses, Dallas realized his own ability to make a similar impact on people who were navigating struggles related to disability.
“[At Storybook Farm], I noticed a lot of people showing up kind of like I was, with a weight on their shoulders and kind of a heaviness,” Dallas explained. “But as the kids starting riding horses and as the program started, I watched these parents and even myself have this joy come back.”
That’s when the Garsts attended a couple’s marriage retreat, and Dallas had the vision that led them to found Ru’s Roots.
“I just felt God saying, ‘You’ve got to do something like this to help the community,” Dallas said. “You’ve walked through [the loss of Ruthie] and you’ve seen what’s happened for you and what’s going on in this community.’”
Recognizing the empowering impact community can have, the Garsts want Ru’s Roots to be a place where everyone feels supported.
In order to make this happen, volunteers are needed to help serve clients. The Garsts said they need volunteers to work one-on-one with fitness participants, but they’re also seeking parents who are willing to volunteer their time supporting other parents of people with disabilities. The goal is to create community and ensure that no one feels alone in their challenges.
With help from the community, the Garsts have big goals for the organization.
“Our immediate goal is just to get our name out there as much as possible and making sure people are aware that there’s this opportunity for them to be a part of it,” Dallas said. “Our ‘forever home’ is kind of the intermediate goal, to be able to move into that larger facility that’s got more options available. Our larger goal that God’s placed on our heart, that is hard to see right now but that we trust, is opening multiple locations across the nation.”
In honoring Ruthie’s life, the Garsts are building something that will outlast grief — a place where every ability is celebrated and no one is left behind.
To give to their cause or to get involved, visit www.rus-roots.org.
