Charity Spotlight

Starting in 2001 with just 14 charities, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon has grown to a record 123 charities in 2009 and shows no signs of slowing down through the selfless efforts of the running community and the hard work of our affiliated non-profit organizations. In total, Chicago Marathon participants have raised nearly $60 million through the Charity Program – an impact that extends well beyond the finish line.

In the build-up to the 2010 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, we will feature some of our long-time as well as new and exciting charity partners in our Charity Spotlight.

September: LIVESTRONG
August: Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy – Run for Our Sons
July: Opportunity Enterprises – OE Runners
June: Girls on the Run – SoleMates
May: Team RISE – RISE International
April: American Cancer Society DetermiNation 

LIVESTRONG
“We don't live in the same city or compete in the same events, but we're one team. We are united by hope, courage and determination.”

Since their inception in 1997, LIVESTRONG has raised $325 million dollars for the fight against cancer, and events, including the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, make up about 26% of the total revenue annually. With a dedication to cancer prevention, access to screening and care, research and quality of life for cancer survivors, LIVESTRONG unites people through programs and experiences to empower cancer survivors to live life on their own terms. In the past ten years LIVESTRONG has granted over $2.8 million to community-based organizations and universities in the greater Chicagoland area that work to provide direct support to residents of Chicago.

After being diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma and enduring six months of chemotherapy, Marty Hahnfeld  decided to get serious about fitness and start living strong. Only 12 months after his final treatment and running his first mile “since junior high,” Marty completed the Chicago Marathon, and raised over $4,500 as part of Team LIVESTRONG. “I owe my doctors, nurses, family and friends a debt I can never repay. But, I had the advantage of all kinds of support which many don’t. And a lot of people truly need support. I feel that one of the responsibilities of survivorship includes taking what I went through and learned and helping others touched by the disease.” With that in mind, Marty joined the lineup of mentors who are helping team LIVESTRONG runners meet their training and fundraising goals for the 2010 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. “10/10/10 is going to be a great day for Team LIVESTRONG, and I’m looking forward to helping the team in any way I can!”

As a member of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon charity running program for just three years, Team LIVESTRONG has already seen about 100 runners raise over $240,000. This year, the goal is $150,000 with 100 runners, and the team is already 106 strong and counting. Formerly, LIVESTRONG has donated funds to the Chicago area based organization SuperSibs!, an organization rooted in Chicago that has expanded nationally through LIVESTRONG.

Every day in the United States and Canada, more than 46 children are diagnosed with cancer. And every day, the brothers and sisters of these children are thrust into a world of experiences that will leave a lasting mark on their lives forever. Over 18,000 new siblings are affected every year, as his or her brother or sister is diagnosed with cancer. SuperSibs! works to help change the culture of pediatric oncology to ensure that sibling support is integrated into all aspects of care, by pledging to redefine the "cancer sibling" experience, by educating and equipping professionals nationwide to integrate these services, and by providing barrier-free direct support to siblings and their families across the U.S. and Canada. Through LIVESTRONG and the Chicago Marathon, up to 22,000 children in 150 hospitals across the US will receive support during the time of a sibling’s diagnosis and beyond.

By participating and fundraising for Team LIVESTRONG, you join a group of committed individuals dedicated to inspiring and empowering people affected by cancer. Join TEAMLIVESTRONG at: livestrong.org

Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy – Run for Our Sons
Going the Distance for Duchenne
In 2005 Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) created Run for Our Sons, an endurance program that helps families and friends raise money and awareness in honor of the people in their lives with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Since then, Run for Our Sons has matured into a successful community fundraising event, drawing hundreds of individuals and families each year and raising over $1 million. And along the way, they have a great time doing it.

As the largest nonprofit organization in the U.S. focused solely on Duchenne, PPMD has improved the treatment, quality of life, and long-term outlook for all individuals affected by Duchenne through research, advocacy, education, and compassion. Because of PPMD, families affected by Duchenne have better access to state-of-the-art care and information, research is moving forward at an accelerated pace, and legislation now exists funding Duchenne research and outreach programs.

The Run for Our Sons team first participated in the Chicago Marathon in 2007. From 2007 through 2009 the team had 119 runners and raised more than $200,000 for PPMD, making the Chicago Marathon the third largest marathon fundraiser for PPMD. This year the Run for Our Sons team anticipates having around 100 runners who will raise a total of $150,000.

Last year, Run for Our Sons fundraising efforts at the Chicago Marathon went toward follistatin research. The money helped fund a grant to Jerry Mendell of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio who will use gene therapy to deliver follistatin into the quadriceps muscles of six men with Becker Muscular Dystrophy and six people with inclusion body myositis. Both diseases cause extreme weakness in the quadriceps muscles. The hope is that this approach will trigger significant increases in muscle mass and strength. The study is to begin by the end of the year.

The Chicago Marathon Run for Our Sons team is dedicated to reaching their fundraising goals through their passion for PPMD’s cause. Cathleen O’Hare leads a team of 50 runners who she personally recruited and coached, and she has already raised $60,000 for PPMD. In 2009, O’Hare and her team of 40 women and 10 men wore bright pink jerseys on race day with the words “Sam’s Team.” O’Hare named the team “Sam’s Muscular Women” and “Sam’s Muscular Men.”

“Once I read about this terrible disease I felt that I needed to do something more significant than just write a check to their family foundation,” said O’Hare.

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon has provided a worldwide audience of spectators and participants for PMDD, adding prestige to the PPMD endurance program and increasing awareness for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Every year PPMD has been able to share with all Run for Our Sons runners creative fundraising tools that the Chicago team has come up with. This year, their team slogan is: “The Chicago team always goes the distance to end Duchenne.” To learn more about Run for Our Sons, click here to view their Chicago team Web page, and click here to view their video.

Opportunity Enterprises – OE Runners
Throughout the last 11 years, more than 2,500 runners, through their efforts at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, have raised over $1.2 million for Opportunity Enterprises (OE), a non-profit organization based out of Northwest Indiana that serves adults and children with disabilities.  OE’s programs serve individuals of all ages, abilities, and diagnoses, and include individuals with autism, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injuries, Alzheimer’s, dementia, loss of limbs, and other challenges.  The agency works with people from infancy through their twilight years as senior citizens, and helps these individuals to learn, work, and live independently by providing residential, rehabilitative, and employment support services.

Last year, 475 runners from 31 states and 8 countries raised more than $222,000 – the largest amount ever raised in the history of the OE Runners. As OE’s largest annual fundraiser, the money OE Runners raise through the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is critical to the agency’s ability to provide the life-changing services its clients so desperately need. Most notably, runner fundraising has supported the construction of a sorely needed day services building, which housed a senior center for adults with disabilities and the All About Kids Early Intervention Program serving babies from birth through age three.

In 2010, funds raised by the OE Marathon Team will support OE’s most ambitious fundraising project to date – a $2 million capital campaign titled “One Year One Challenge.” Bolstered by a challenge grant which will match every dollar raised, dollar for dollar, up to $2 million, these funds will be used to develop OE’s newest property, OE Lakeside.

Encompassing 158 acres of wooded property on the shores of a beautiful lake, OE Lakeside represents unlimited potential for growth and innovation. Plans are being developed for three main projects – constructing fully handicapped accessible apartment buildings, expanding the current day services building, and adding park-like amenities to enhance the property’s natural beauty. These projects will not only allow clients currently served by OE to enjoy a higher quality and larger variety of services, but will allow OE to serve more clients. 

This year, the number of runners raising money for OE will approach 500. Each of these runners will have a unique opportunity to double their fundraising efforts and make a significant contribution to projects that will literally change the lives of their friends, neighbors, and community. “In the Long Run, Everyone Benefits,” is more than just a tagline for the OE Marathon Team – it’s a great reason to run.

Girls on the Run – SoleMates
Help Make a Difference in the Lives of Girls Everywhere
Girls on the Run – Chicago (GOTRC) celebrated its 10th Anniversary in 2009 with more than 700 coaches mentoring almost 4,000 girls at 168 sites in five Chicago area counties. With the help of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, GOTRC will continue to enrich the lives of young girls for many years to come.

In the past 10 years, thousands of women throughout Chicagoland have volunteered to inspire over 10,000 young girls with the confidence they need to become strong, healthy women. The Chicago chapter of Girls on the Run, the local affiliate of Girls on the Run – International, is an after school learning program that uses the power of running as a vehicle to help 8-14 year-old girls learn self respect and healthy living. The program’s 12-week curriculum seeks to reduce potential at-risk activities among its participants, including unhealthy eating, adolescent pregnancies, depression and suicide attempts, and substance/alcohol abuse problems.  As the girls learn together, they also train together in preparation for the program’s culminating event – a 5K run.

Since GOTRC started its charity running program, SoleMates, in 2003, 484 runners have raised $250,000. All money raised by SoleMates goes directly to support new after school programs and to ensure that all girls have the opportunity to participate in GOTR regardless of income level. One notable SoleMates runner, Lynn Rogers, hopes to raise $10,000 in 10 years for GOTRC. Lynn explains, “After being a Girls on the Run coach, I saw with my own eyes, the impact this program has.  Girls change for the better at Girls on the Run!” Lynn has been a SoleMates runner since the charity’s beginnings.

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon boasts over 250 GOTR SoleMates charity runners. The money raised by these athletes through the Chicago Marathon Charity Program has helped fund 83 GOTR sites, which now brings the program to more than 1,250 girls in Chicagoland. Since it was founded in 1999, the charity has grown from sites at two schools, to currently delivering the program at more than 200 schools. Money raised through the Chicago Marathon accounts for approximately 10% of GOTRC’s total revenue.

The fundraising goal for GOTRC through this year’s Chicago Marathon is $100,000. Runners seeking to make a difference in the lives of young girls can join the GOTRC SoleMates by clicking here.

Team RISE – RISE International
RISE-ing Above and Beyond for Angola
Thanks to the efforts of 24 runners and their supporters at the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, 1,300 children in Africa have new school buildings in which to learn. Built in the Huila province of Angola, the construction of the schools was a direct result of the $145,000 raised by Team RISE at last year’s Chicago Marathon.

RISE International works to rebuild lives and communities in rural Angola, building primary schools in places where there are none, schools that impact many children and their families. By partnering with local churches, community leaders and government officials, RISE builds schools that serve to educate children in their own communities, and become village focal points, providing a setting for adult education and community meetings.

RISE International, initially the African Refugee Committee, became a non-profit in 2001, an organization formed with volunteers, vision and a desire to do something to make a difference. RISE focuses its efforts in Angola because of the overwhelming need for schools and because of a personal connection with the people. To date, RISE has built 128 schools in Angola since 2003, impacting more than 55,000 students. RISE provides educational support through training workshops conducted by teams who travel to Angola on a Pilgrimage of Service. AIDS education and prevention is also taught through the It Takes Courage! curriculum. Leaders and teachers are able to take what they learn back to their classrooms and villages to teach life skills to students and communities.

2009 marked Team RISE’s first year as part of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Charity Program, and the team’s fundraising total of $145,000 garnered more than $6,000 per runner—accounting for approximately 17% of the organization’s giving total for the year.  Heading into 2010, Team RISE is aiming to raise $210,000 for the construction of three schools in Angola that will educate 2,100 children, and they are well on their way with a fundraising team of more than 50 marathon runners thus far.

The success of Team RISE's fundraising efforts at the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon has inspired the entire organization to be more creative in regard to how they can use their passions to raise money and awareness for their cause. This summer, RISE will host its first-ever golf outing, and Team RISE will be a part of other running events this summer and fall before returning to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 10. To learn more about Team RISE, visit riseinternational.org.

Click here to view the Team RISE 2009 video on YouTube.

American Cancer Society DetermiNation
Every Mile Makes a Difference When Fighting Cancer
Who do you run for? It’s a question American Cancer Society DetermiNation™ runners hear frequently – but never tire of answering.

As a nation of athletes determined to end cancer and save lives, DetermiNation athletes know that teaming up with the American Cancer Society makes every mile more meaningful. Thousands have achieved their training and race goals for events like the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, while making an impact on the cancer battle.

“I run for my dad, who recently passed away from cancer,” reveals one marathoner. “I think about how tough the training was for my first marathon, but it was nothing compared to what he went through. He always said, ‘Push yourself,’ and that’s what I did – not only throughout my training and race, but to raise funds to help the American Cancer Society defeat this disease.”

One man’s dream inspires a nationwide movement
What started in Chicago 15 years ago at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon as one man’s tribute to a friend lost to cancer has evolved into a nationwide movement.

Dennis Fitzpatrick, while training for the 1996 Chicago Marathon, approached the American Cancer Society’s Illinois Division with a novel idea – a way to honor his friend’s memory by raising funds to fight cancer. Because of his vision, a program was created and has since evolved into 60 DetermiNation endurance races nationwide. Expanding first throughout Illinois, the concept caught on and its popularity with athletes of all abilities spurred its growth to include triathlons and cycling events. Now known as American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation, the program went nationwide last year and has raised nearly $7 million to date across 6,000 participants. Thanks to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon's support and partnership from the beginning, the American Cancer Society is poised to go the distance again this year.

It takes DetermiNation to fight cancer
With every dollar raised and every mile conquered, DetermiNation athletes help create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. At the 2009 Chicago Marathon, 655 runners raised more than $1 million to fund the Society’s lifesaving mission to:

• Help people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early.
• Help people get well with free, hands-on services and programs for cancer patients and their families.
• Find cures by investing in groundbreaking research.
• Fight back by urging lawmakers to pass cancer-fighting laws and legislation.

Our list of accomplishments is miles long…but we have miles left to go. In this battle that’s taken too many, there’s more at stake than ever before. With the help of Chicago Marathon runners committed to the DetermiNation program, we’ll keep fighting for a world with more birthdays.

Learn more about the American Cancer Society, its DetermiNation program and how you can join its Bank of America Chicago Marathon team at www.acsDetermiNation.org or through this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzgkivavGlk.