2009 Race Highlights
We are very excited to report that the event raised nearly $70,000 for the Heart Institute at Rady Children's Hospital. In 2009, we had 2 events: the 2nd Annual Max and Jake's Big Race and our Loving Little Hearts party. Both events were very successful, and we are so thankful to everyone who helped make them successful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Max and Jake's Big Race had more than 500 runners participate in our second race at Mission Trails. Once again, the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful day at the park filled with fun, physical fitness, music and camaraderie. Congratulations again to our 5k race winners, who received new shoes courtesy of Asics:
- Men: Bryan Wallbank (18:23)
- Women: Patrice Shumaker (21:02)
- Boys (12 and under): Austin Jertberg (26:59)
- Girls (12 and under): Brooke Snow (25:50)
The expo following the race was a success. We had a variety of vendors ranging from Befit Lifestyle to Reflexology. We were also excited to have various kid activities, booths, lots of great raffle prizes including massages, restaurant gift certificates and jewelry. We are thankful for the fun music from Hullabaloo and Rihanna and the visit from Ronald McDonald.
We were fortunate to have Ken Kramer from NBC/7 as our MC. He did a great job keeping things on schedule and promoting our cause. We had great support and coverage from local media including the Union-Tribune, Fox San Diego 5, NBC/7, Channel 6, KUSI.
We were lucky to have some great photographers at the race. Sharon Cooley is one of our sponsors and we thank her for all of her support! To view the race photos from Sharon go to Runner's of Max and Jake's Race
A friend of Jake's family, Darin Fong, who is also a photographer, took some great photos and can be viewed at http://www.fongphotography.org/videos/maxandjake2009/
Nancy Varga, one of the volunteer rangers who helped direct runners out in the field, took some great action photos and posted them on her Shutterfly page. Thanks, Nancy and crew!
And none of this would not have been possible without our wonderful volunteers, lead by Kelly Frederick.
Our first Loving Little Hearts event was a great success as well. We had hundreds of people join us at The New Children's Museum in downtown San Diego. It was an elegant evening of wine and champagne tasting, delicious dishes by Waters Fine Catering, art, fun atmosphere, and live music. We had great silent and live auction items, signature champagne glasses, and Fashion T?s, so none of our guests would need to go home empty handed.
The crowd was captivated with great performances by Ashely Matte (www.ashleymatte.com), Sara Petite (www.sarapetite.com), and Lisa Campbell (www.lisacampbellsongs.com). Miss California was also on hand to show her support for our wonderful cause.
We were joined by Steve Orenstein a Rady Children's heart patient who captured the hearts of the audience with the tale of his own experience at Rady Children's Hospital. His story helped attendees understand the great and important work done at Rady Children's and generated a lot of support and donations - including a $7,000 Fetal Echo Exam Table! Thank you Steve!
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