¡Hoy celebramos a los campeones de mantenimiento!

Welcome to the first installment in a very special series close to my heart. In this series, we share the incredible stories of people in the public eye who have demonstrated exceptional determination in order to chase their dreams. You may already be familiar with their accomplishments, but you’ve never heard how unsung heroes in the background demonstrated the same unyielding grit and tenacity to help these champions get to where they are today. This is Maintenance Champions: Grit Recognizes Grit, where we partner with some of the world's most prolific titleholders, medalists and record-breakers to say thank you to the men and women in maintenance behind the scenes of every one of the world’s most amazing accomplishments. 

Today, I am thrilled to celebrate the start of the biggest tennis tournament of the year in North America by combining two of my life’s greatest passions: tennis and maintenance. With the US Open in New York City starting today, it’s my honor to introduce our first Maintenance Champions: Grit Recognizes Grit spotlight, Desirae Krawczyk, 4x Grand Slam Mixed Doubles Tennis Champion.

I first met Desirae earlier this summer coming off of her big win at Wimbledon. 

Ryan and his wife watching Desirae at Wimbledon in London

 It was her fourth grand slam win where I got to see her LIVE. To say I was starstruck would be an understatement. 

When she asked about UpKeep and what we do, I skipped my usual elevator pitch. Instead I said, “we build technology for the people in maintenance who in many ways enable the biggest stars like you to shine.” I explained how there are unsung heroes behind the scenes everywhere we go. I pointed out the maintenance team’s role in the very facility we were chatting in, operations role in producing every piece of tennis gear we were wearing, on and on I went because, truly, maintenance is everywhere.

I told her how UpKeep’s mission is to shine a light on these men and women of maintenance as they are the ones that keep our world running, but often do so in the background and rarely are recognized when things go just the way they are supposed to.  Eventually, I realized I was doing that thing I love to do… giving a long-winded sermon on how maintenance is, well, awesome. Again, being fresh off a Wimbledon win, I expected Desirae to share a bit of interest and be on her way back to practice. 

But she surprised me - she said this all super resonated with her!  She shared stories of all the people she’s noticed working around the large facilities working day in and day out to keep her and her fellow athletes safe during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said if she could play a role in thanking them, she’d love to do it. She asked, “how could I help?”

In our video spotlight below, you can hear Desirae's story of becoming a 4x Grand Slam Mixed Doubles Tennis Champion and the stories of those who worked tirelessly in the background to help her get there.

UpKeep Partners with Desirae Krawczyk

Fast forward to today and I am thrilled to announce UpKeep’s partnership with Desirae! 

We wanted to go big and let the world know we are here to thank those who keep our world running so we couldn’t think of a better way other than getting a NYC Times Square billboard this week of the US Open! You can find an UpKeep patch proudly displayed on Desirae’s US Open uniform.

Join me in wishing Desirae good luck in her quest for her 5th grand slam championship and saying THANK YOU for championing the men and women of maintenance who made the tournament possible.