Meet Emily. Emily loves to ride horses, listen to music, and spend time with her youth group. She has two parents, two pups, and a younger brother who love her dearly. She is a bright and beautiful girl who happens to be diagnosed with Ataxia-Telangiectasia or A-T.
In case you, like myself just a few days ago, are not familiar with A-T is a rare genetic disease that attacks children, causing progressive loss of muscle control, immune system problems, and a high rate of cancer. These kids start out just like any other child, but A-T progressively robs them of their ability to walk, talk, read and write – and often even being able to eat and swallow properly. All this while their minds are perfectly healthy – there is no cognitive damage. At this time A-T has no cure. And, since it is considered an “orphan disease”, A-T receives no government funding for research. This means any breakthroughs in therapy for these kids to improve quality of life OR any hope for a cure comes solely from fundraising efforts- solely from the generosity and kindness of people willing to help.
Cut to my Disney announcement. I am so incredibly excited to be running in the Disneyland 10K (Part of the Dumbo Double Dare Weekend) this year on behalf of The Children’s A-T Project. Yay Team Emily!!! I feel like fate sort of brought us together. I literally missed the 10K cut off by minutes and talked with Andrea at Run Eat Date Sleep about possibly linking up with a charitable organization for the race. What started off as us trying to figure out a way to run the 10K as Cheshire Cat twins (yeah that’s happening by the way- teehee) turned into something so much more important!
Since I am planning to run (not just complete) the 10K I have a long road of training ahead of me. I am ready to train, trim, and turn myself into a legit runner before making my way to California this summer. But I need your help!
The biggest (and best) part of running in this 10K will be the donations I am able to raise for such a great cause. The hubs and I are covering my room/board for the trip so be assured that 100% of the $600.00 I am trying to raise will go straight to A-T Children’s Project to help kids like Emily. Again, nothing you are kind enough to donate will pay for my race fee or travel expenses. For those interested 81% of all donations will be applied directly to research and treatment while the remaining 19% covers fundraising efforts and administrative costs for the organization to keep it up and running. Please consider supporting these amazing kids/teens so I can run my heart out for them in August! Every single dollar matters so please consider donations of any size as equally appreciated!
Please visit my fundraising page: www.atcp.org/Sara
Thanks for helping me to help some amazing kids and I’ll see you at Disneyland!!!!
Yay Team Emily!! (Great name, btw!!
) How cool – this is a great opportunity. And Cheshire Cat twins?? Awesome!! (I need to figure out a costume for the 10K….and now you’ve got me thinking it should really be an Alice inspired costume.)
Always go Alice inspired! I got the idea for Cheshire Cat twins when the race description mentioned going “down the rabbit hole”
[...] Today marked Day 1 of my Disneyland 10K training. I am officially $400.00 away from my fundraising goal. I thought I would post the letter that is going out to family and friends tomorrow with the hope that some will find it in their hearts to donate to Team Emily (pictured below). You can learn more about her HERE. [...]