Sunday, July 13, 2014

Why am I running the Chicago Marathon

A family with a very sick child wanted a home in Gainesville, FL while their son went through 3 open-heart surgeries. Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and its volunteers gave them a place to stay and made them feel at home while supported them and their sick child through a challenging time.

A family with a very sick child wanted a home-away-from-home in Twin Cities, MN while their son could get the life-saving medical care, he immediately needed. They could not afford to pay for housing during their stay in Twin Cities, MN. Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and its volunteers gave them the care, strength and the support needed to get through their tough times.

These are few of the many everyday stories at Ronald McDonald House of Charities (RMHC).

Chicago Marathon is part of a series of six most respected marathons in the world that make up the World Marathon Majors. This series includes marathons in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. These cities offer a huge platform for charity organizations such as RMHC to raise the type of funds they need to move forward with their mission. Last year, Chicago Marathon hosted 10,000 Charity runners for more than 140 local, national and global causes and raised 1.2 million dollars. (Source: Chicago Marathon web site)

As I was speaking with friends and colleagues that have been a part of such an experience, I started to understand the process of associating myself with a charity and understand what is expected of me. The next step was easy. I went through all the charities that were sponsoring the Chicago Marathon and chose TeamRMHC representing Ronald McDonald House of Charities

The RHMC organization has support from thousands of volunteers, have relationships with the medical community and have local chapters throughout the world. Their local chapters can now be found in 58 countries and regions across the globe. Each chapter has its own cost structure that supports the mission and vision of RMHC.  For example: it costs Ronald McDonald Charity house of New York approximately $270 dollars to house each family, each night. This is around $23,000 per day for 84 families supported by the chapter. Now multiply this with around 300 chapters across the world and the number quickly reaches in millions of dollars in cost per year for RMHC to move forward with their mission. Where does this money come from? Part of the money comes from average marathon runners like me that sign up to raise for their cause. 

But as I am learning about this organization and how it benefits the less-fortunate families and their sick children, and as a parent of two boys myself, I am starting to put things in perspective. Being part of Chicago Marathon is more than humility, the race or any personal goals I may have; it is about supporting the family that may need a place to stay or any immediate support they need for healing a child that is fighting a injury or sickness. It is important that I am able to help an organization that needs support from average runners like me to create awareness for its cause and also to support it financially so that they can carry out their mission. I am asking for your help in supporting these families that look at RMHC for healing and their home-away-from-home.

I am proud of the friends and families that have already donated to RMHC as they should know that a family or a child would thank them in their prayers when they are offered assistance from RMHC. 

Please consider joining me as we invest in the lives of these family and children. All donations are 100% tax deductible. I encourage you to donate securely online at my personal fundraising web page:

Donation Link: http://teamrmhc.kintera.org/rundiction

Did you know?
   RMHC now has local chapters in more than 58 countries and regions around the world
   More than $200 million has been collected through RMHC Donation Boxes
   RMHC programs can be found in 78% of the world’s best children’s hospitals
   Every year, RMHC helps nearly 9 million families stay together

I also invite you to read many of these stories at their blog: http://www.rmhc.org/rmhc-blog

Thank You
Harsh

No comments:

Post a Comment