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5 Ways to FUNdraise Towards Your Marathon Goal

5 Ways to FUNdraise Towards Your Marathon Goal

With the Fall marathon season upon us, we sat down with five Team Fox members all preparing for upcoming marathons to get some insight on their successful fundraising tactics. Take notes! Here are five easy ways to FUNdraise as a Team Fox athlete!

Make it Personal Lauren Everly has conquered half marathons in the past but is taking on her first full marathon as a Team Fox member in the upcoming Disney Marathon in January. Her approach has been to focus less on fundraising and more on sharing her story and her passion for Parkinson’s research. She is running in memory of her dad who was living with PD. Lauren explains “My first step was personalizing my Team Fox fundraising page, which is an amazing resource.” She then began posting stories, memories and photos along with the link to her fundraising page on social media sites such as Instagram, Tumblr & Facebook. Donors see her passion for the cause and resonate with it.  In just a couple of months, Lauren has been able to raise over $3,200, already surpassing her fundraising goal!

Have Fun with it!   Marathon veteran, Alex Perez, will once again be running the NYC marathon with Team Fox.  Running in honor of his father who is living with PD, this will be his third marathon running as a Team Fox member (he has ran NYC and LA once before).  Every year, Alex has made a fundraising video asking for support. Alex explains, “For this year's opus, I aimed for something silly.” With the help of his friend (who edited the video), an orange suit purchased from Amazon and an “incredibly nuanced performance” by his cat, Max, this year’s video was born! Alex explains “if my video makes someone (other than my mom) either laugh or cry, then it has done its job. I am inspired every day by my incredible Team Fox teammates, runners and non-runners alike.” Scroll down to watch Alex's full video!

Utilize your Talents:  New Team Fox member, Elizabeth Nabors, is tackling the iconic TCS New York City Marathon in November - her very first marathon! Her inspiration is her grandfather who was diagnosed with PD 10 years ago. Collaborating with her friend (who is also running the NYC marathon), they held a joint garage sale with items donated by friends and family which brought in $1,000 towards their fundraising goal!  Next, after reading a couple of DIY blogs and searching for the appropriate materials, Elizabeth started making fox themed key chains and selling each one for a specific donation amount. With this new approach, she is even closer to reaching her goal - "The great part is that most of the sales [from the key chains] have been to people I would not otherwise expect to support my run," explains Elizabeth. 

Host your Own Fundraising Event - Sarah Lord, a Team Fox alumni, will be one of 90+ runners representing Team Fox in the October12th Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Aspiring to beat the $7,359 she raised last year, she has planned several fundraising events including poker tournaments, March Madness Brackets and Superbowl Sunday boxes. One of her larger scale events is a charity bingo night, which just recently took place and raised over $1,100 in just two hours! Sarah has also paired up with local restaurants for a "Give Back Night" where a portion of food sales will be donated to her fundraising efforts. Sarah is not only passionate about the cause because of her father's diagnosis but explains, “through Team Fox, I have met other individuals who have been touched by this disease as well, so my connection runs far deeper as I have other friends who have been impacted."

Fundraise as a Team – Husband and wife team, Jon and Cara Gilman, are also gearing up for this year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon! Although they have both run marathons in the past, this is the first one they are running together. This past January, a genetic test found that Jon has the LRRK2 genetic mutation, which may make him more susceptible to having PD in the future. Cara, a yoga and spin instructor, wanted to host a community fundraising event focused around fitness and health.   Hosted pro-bono at the local Sweat and Soul Yoga studio, where Cara teaches, “Pedal for Parkinson’s included four 45-minute spin classes for which each participant made a $25 donation to participate. The sold out event was a huge success and raised about $1,600! Cara explains that “one of our biggest learnings from hosting this event is don’t be afraid to ask. Once I started to talk about the event to my students they wanted to help and support the event in any way they could. That's one of the ways in which we were able to secure such great raffle prizes. Impactful fundraising events all come back to creating community and having fun.”

Alex Perez's 2014 Team Fox NYC Marathon Farewell Tour from Alex Perez on Vimeo.

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