In January, more than 10 Yamaha staff members and friends participated in the Southern California Half Marathon and 5K races to raise money for Type 1 juvenile diabetes research at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC Children’s).
2017 marks the ninth consecutive year that Yamaha has participated, and Yamaha Cares and KatrinaKures have presented CHOC Children’s with a check for $15,640. The grand total of overall donations from this annual event now surpasses $110,000.
“This fundraising effort keeps getting bigger and better each year,” says David Jewell, marketing communications manager of Yamaha Corporation of America. “The money we raise has no strings attached and 100 percent of it goes directly to research, which we hope will one day lead to a cure for this disease.”
Jewell says that he is personally invested in the cause because his daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes when she was 13.
“I wanted to do something grassroots to raise money for research,” he says. “I’m a runner, so I asked my running pals and some industry people to join me in the race and they have been with me ever since.”
To encourage online donations, Jewell also ran a concurrent CrowdRise campaign, KatrinaKures, and local merchants like The Corner Bakery in Anaheim Hills and Tempo Urban Kitchen in Brea donated the food for the post-race celebration.
“I had more help this year than ever,” Jewell says. “Everyone wanted to contribute. I took a day to solicit businesses in the area for silent auction items and we raised almost $1,000 with their donations!”
For the event’s 10th anniversary next year, Manheim Auction will raise funds for KatrinaKures this November and December.
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