October 14th, the day of Melbourne Marathon Festival, brought beautiful weather for running in the morning, and what a great turnout of team runners – and walkers – we had this year. We’re pleased to report around 200 supporters donned our signature blue singlets and t-shirts and joined team JMB Foundation on the track. The full marathon had 29 ambitious athletes running, while 93 signed up for the half marathon, 102 gave the 10 km track a go, 21 managed the 5kms, and 10 more sedate entrants walked 3kms. Ex Carey Grammar student and old friend of James’ Andrew Hemsley was one of those ambitious runners who ran the full marathon, raising more than $3,000 for the charity he knows does such good work.
Melbourne Marathon day is always special for us because we see first-hand just how much support there is out there for the Foundation and the work we do. So many people contributed to make the 2018 Melbourne Marathon the success it was. Our dedicated fundraisers appealed to their friends, families, and colleagues to contribute to their campaigns to reward them for their efforts, which in turn rewarded JMBF with a total of $44,299 in donations, representing an increase on last year of more than 100 percent. We thank everyone who started a campaign, or gave to one, and especially to our lead fundraiser for the second year running, Richard Large, who raised $7.5k for the Foundation. More than 200 runners were showing off our brand on marathon day, making quite an impact and helping to raise awareness of JMBF. Our very warm thanks to our sponsors, Invesco and Old Carey Grammarians Association Community Support Fund, for so generously underwriting the cost of our shirts and organizational costs again this year. Such significant contributions mean we can put more money where it does the most good – into our grants program to help young people with ABI.
The event couldn’t take place without the huge army of volunteers required to make everything work on the day, and JMBF volunteers make up a significant proportion of the team. We are really proud of our 2018 team, every one of whom put in an outstanding effort. The sun shone, and our drinks stations teams were there to ensure thousands of runners stayed well hydrated. Our course marshals did a great job too! The result of these efforts was a $24,000 donation from the event organizers, so if you volunteered – THANK YOU. We are always so impressed by the support we receive for the Marathon, and we are sincerely grateful for your contribution. Thank you to everyone who joined in on marathon day. We hope we can look forward to having you on board again in 2019.
