For the 10th consecutive year, Yamaha Cares participated in the Southern California Half Marathon and 5K races to raise money for Type 1 juvenile diabetes research at CHOC Children’s (CHOC) hospital. With the help of Yamaha Cares, the event raised $32,000, bringing the grand total of overall donations to more than $142,000.
“This fundraising effort was our most successful ever,” said David Jewell, marketing communications manager, Yamaha Corp. of America. “It is wonderful to have so much participation from our community, supporting such a worthy cause.”
Jewell is personally invested in the cause as his daughter Katrina was diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes when she was just 13. He wanted to do something grassroots to raise money for research, so he asked his running pals and some industry people to join him in the race. “That was 10 years ago, and they have been with me ever since.”
A concurrent CrowdRise campaign, KatrinaKures, was conducted to encourage online donations, while more than 100 people attended a post-race celebration. All the money raised for CHOC goes directly to research, with no strings attached. CHOC is the largest screening site for the National Institutes of Health-sponsored TrialNet, which seeks to reveal causes of the disease, identify prevention measures and find a cure.