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Dear Friends,
Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Mari Hall Family Foundation Newsletter, which we hope to produce on a recurring basis for subscribers and visitors to our website, www.marihallfoundation.org. We are so grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support and donations to our cause, and we are eager to work with all of you who have expressed an interest in supplementing the early intervention educational experience of children like our daughter Mari and her buddies.
Mari’s Miles of Smiles
The Foundation’s efforts are focused primarily on the planning and hosting of our First Annual Mari’s Miles of Smiles Road Race and Family Fun K Event, which will include a competitive 10 kilometer road race and a “Fun K” kilometer family event for kids and their parents, grandparents, neighbors and everyone and anyone who wishes to join in! The 10k will be a USA Track and Field certified and sanctioned event, electronically timed with awards to men and women finishers in a variety of categories. The Fun K event will be a classic field day type of event with activities, games and prizes for kids of all ages.
Registration fees for the road race are $30 for 10k runners who preregister ($35 day of the race) and $5 for Fun K participants. Please know that every dollar of your registration fees after expenses will be devoted to the charitable causes of The Mari Hall Family Foundation, including primarily the supplemental funding of the Early Intervention Center at Darcey School in Cheshire, Connecticut.
Lastly, in a later edition of this newsletter I look forward to sharing with you the names and photos of all of the wonderful people who have been so generous with their time and effort in helping to plan, organize and host this event. Needless to say it is a ton of work, but it goes to show – yet again -- how caring and wonderful people in this community are. My wife Lisa and I are eternally grateful to each and every one of you --- and here’s hoping that as we grow this event each year it gets a little easier to organize!
To register online for the race or obtain a mail in application, click here.
Athletes and ASD
If you haven’t had a chance to visit our website, www.marihallfoundation.org, please do. You will note that the charitable purpose of our Foundation is to help each and every child who receives services through Darcey’s Early Intervention Center regardless of her particular challenge. However, our daughter Mari’s particular challenge is autism, and so I am always attuned to keeping my eyes and open for stories of interest regarding autism, particularly stories of athletes who happen to be on the ASD spectrum. I hope everyone has seen the story of Jason McElwain, the young man who managed his high school basketball team and rewarded the patience and faith placed in him by so many members of his community with 18 points in three minutes in his last high school basketball game. If you haven’t, please take a minute and enjoy it on youtube.com.
If, like me, that story made you feel great, please check out this story. As we are deep into the race planning process, I am drawing a big boost in particular from the story of the young man who ran the Las Vegas marathon in two hours and thirty six minutes (wow).
Our family draws inspiration in Mari’s accomplishments every day. I hope you find these stories of athletic achievement equally inspiring.
Stay cool everyone, and I look forward to hearing from you and authoring another newsletter in September. Take care!
Matt Hall, President
The Mari Hall Family Foundation, Inc.
PS: Please help us get the word out Share Us
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