Look closely at the snapshots of Angie Parris-Raney’s life, and you’ll see a face filled with passion and joy. Whether she’s doing volunteer work with the children of Peru, helping a fellow hiker with some onsite massage, or creating relationships with industry partners on Colorado mountaintops, Parris-Raney does it with spirit and a smile. It’s how she approaches life. And it’s how she’s preparing for the 2015 Boston Marathon as a member of the Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF) Running for Research Team.

A Colorado-based massage therapist since 2000, Parris-Raney is also ABMP’s director of strategic partnerships and advertising, as well as a 14-year ABMP member. Her already busy life got busier in November 2014, when she was awarded a charity bib from the MTF and ABMP to run in Boston’s biggest race and help raise money for massage research.  
With her full-time job at ABMP, and her daily training regimen, Parris-Raney still makes time for her part-time massage work. Even though she’s had to reduce her client hours while she trains for Boston, she says she’ll never give up seeing clients. “Having this one-on-one time and helping clients in their healing journey, helping them discover for themselves how to heal or solve a problem, it comes back to a place of simplicity for me. It’s pure and simple. And a lot of times I’ll come out of their massage session feeling transformed myself.” Plus, she says, her marathon training can only help her clients: “Sometimes, when you experience your own pain, it makes you a better healer.”
With a daily schedule that would exhaust most, and a bucket list that includes climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and soaking in a thermal bath under Iceland’s midnight sun, Parris-Raney also finds time to feed her spirit through her nonprofit, Project Inti, which works to affect positive, sustainable change in Peruvian communities. “My passions include helping impoverished women and children. It’s one of my purposes in life. I just have a heart for the forgotten, the discarded, the abandoned. I want to make sure they know there is a place for them, there is love for them.” It’s this motivation that drives her regular treks to Peru to offer aid and support in times of crisis, and teach caregivers at orphanages the power of touch for their young wards.
Whether it’s in a Peruvian village, at ABMP’s offices, or on one of Colorado’s highest peaks, Parris-Raney’s spirit and passion are undeniable. Please help cheer on that spirit as she raises money for massage therapy research in Boston this April. Go Angie!