So here we are, on Earth Day. The day we always open registration! Woo hoo!
Except, of course, that we aren’t. Because that would be stupid. I’d insert an emoji with a tear rolling down onto a facemask if I had it.
But not all the news sucks. Because so far, with your donations, we have provided over 2,000 meals to front line workers and others in need. Read on, my friends.
Last week we put up $5,000 in matching funds to buy food from local restaurants to deliver to front line workers. And we got $15,000 in donations. Wow.
You guys blew our doors off with that response.
So we’re doing it again! NewRo Runners and Paine to Pain are putting up another $5,000, hoping for at least $10,000 more in donations. That means a total of 25K from you and 10K from us. [Donate here]
We received donations from about 200 people and groups. But this email is going out to about 5,000. Maybe (if you haven’t been furloughed) you can spare one race fee for the effort to help those that have helped us?
We’ve also set it up so that you can form your own group to make donations, regardless of what type of group you are. [Form group here.]
So far we have spent about $12,000 on those meals. Food/money has so far been delivered to:
- Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital (provides P2P finish line medical)
- Empress EMS (provides aid station medical)
- New Rochelle Police Department (provides traffic protection for P2P start/finish)
- Hope Community Services (our local food kitchen, because their client base tripled from March to April)
Participating restaurants (some of whom have previously donated to us as P2P sponsors) include:
- AJ’s Burgers
- H&R Bialy
- Mikey Dubbs
- North End Tavern
- Joey’s Deli
- COSI
- Maria’s
- Posto 22
- Avenue Deli & Café
- Westchester Taco Grill
- Italian Meateria
The running club is, by the way, a non-profit 501(c)(3) and you get a receipt for the tax man.
Want to know what else we’re trying? We’re looking to buy a couple thousand masks. No, not to sell. To give away. For free. Just like all the food we give away at the P2P finish line. Because that’s the way we roll run. So we may donate even more moneyfor that project.
If we can pull this off, the masks would be the non-medical type since those are needed elsewhere.
At this moment, can you think of a better way to serve a local community?
You can donate here: Donate here.
And special thanks to Sean Mosher-Smith (P2P veteran) of Echo Design Lab for creating the fundraising logo on short notice!
Eric Turkewitz,
Race Director, Paine to Pain