I’m not a runner. But for the past nine years, I’ve laced up my shoes on a hot summer day and run for the kids of St. Jude. I’m not a runner. But if I train, I can turn 6 or 10 or 13 miles into $25,000 in one day. Okay, technically that part is a lie. It’s not ME turning miles into money, it’s YOU. I’m not a runner, but since I started running the Washington to Peoria run for St. Jude in 2015, my fundraising has totaled over $100,000. Over $20,000 of that has come from our annual plant sale. (I’m not a runner, but I am a gardener. ) The rest of that amazing amount has come from YOU! 

On July 20, Renee and I will again run the Washington to Peoria run for St. Jude. This will be my tenth year and Renee’s third. Last year the two of us raised $26,325 for St. Jude, and this year we plan to beat that record. I’m not a runner. So why do I run? I run because my friend Julie lost her 8-year-old son to brain cancer in 2017. I run because my friend Courtney’s son, with help from St. Jude, has been battling brain cancer since 2019. I run because my friend Amanda’s daughter recently finished her last chemo treatment for lymphoma and is now cancer-free. I run because in the United States alone, 17,000 kids are diagnosed with cancer each year. I run because St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is doing everything they can to increase survival rates for kids with cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases, and they need our help.

 Did you know?

•  The St. Jude Runs fundraising total over the past 41 years is $76,617,384.00.
•  Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survivor rate from 20% when they opened in 1962 to more than 80% today.
•  Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so that they can focus on the most important thing – helping their child live.
•  The daily budgeted operating cost of St. Jude is $2,000,000. Approximately 75% of that is covered by public contributions.
•  All costs for the running events are covered by volunteers and donations from local businesses, so 100% of every dollar donated to the runs goes to St. Jude.
• St. Jude treats children from all 50 states and around the world. 

Are you a runner? Just let me know if you’re interested, and I can get you signed up for run day. Or maybe you see yourself as a donor instead? If you would like to join Renee and me in helping to support the work of St. Jude, you can write a check, made out to St. Jude Runs, and send it to Helen, or you can give online. Whether or not you are able to donate monetarily, please hold the kids and families of St. Jude in your prayers. It is for them that we run. 

 Thanks so much! 

Helen and Renee