As you may or may not know, I am running my 4th marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon (26.2 miles), on November 23, 2008. This marathon is very special to me for a few reasons. I am going to give you the short version here. The rest is detailed in the link below. Before you go to much farther...yes this is a fundraising post, but remember $5 goes a long way.
This marathon is different because I am running it not only to raise support for my volunteer program, the Lasallian Volunteers, but I am also running it with 7 students from my the high school I volunteer at in Philadelphia through a program called Students Run Philly Style. It has been a long adventure training with these students for this race. I started our team way back in March with about 30 students teaching them on how to run and for most of them completing their first mile ever with them. We ran a few 5ks (3.1 miles), the Broad Street Run (10 miles) in May and most recently the ING Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in September. It has been an exciting adventure, and I can't wait to line up on Marathon day with them at the starting line. Obviously training for a marathon takes a lot of commitment, so we had many students dropped out along the way. These final 7 students who committed to a long training and race season are very inspiring teenagers who give me hope for the many students growing up in cities with few resources and even less support. It has truly been a life changing experience running with these students and learning with them each day. I joke that I spend more time with them than my family, community or friends and it is actually probably true. I would like to think I am having an influence in their lives, but truth be told they are probably influencing me more than I realize.
The longer version about running with these students, my volunteer experience, why I am raising money for the Lasallian Volunteers, and how you can support me can be found here:
http://lasallianvolunteersrun.googlepages.com/mari%27sfundraisingpage
I decided to create a website with all the information about this fundraising effort so you wouldn't be flooded with information in one blog (not sure I actually reduced the amount of information). Please take some time to check out the website and determine if you are able donate to our cause (you can donate either online or through the mail). I know the economy is bad and we are all stressed out about our retirement accounts (well not me....I don't really have one to speak of), so if you aren't able to donate at this time, send me a hello or let me know what you are up to. I always love hearing from folks.
If you would like to skip all the information and just donate (please by all means I won't stop you), you can donate online here:
http://www.lasallianvolunteers.org/marathon/main.asp
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
Love
Mari
Mari Anzicek
Lasallian Volunteer - Philadelphia
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