Northwest Ohio chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Raceway Park came together for its 2nd annual 'Run for the 65 Roses' event this past Saturday to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research.
The event was a huge success raising a total of $10,800 with a cash donation from Raceway Park of $1,441. The total raised was more than $2,000 more than the goal for the event this year.
Raceway Park’s general manager, Bill McLaughlin, said “we are thrilled that the community was able to help us raise this much money for a great organization, given the state of the economy in Northwest Ohio & Southeast Michigan. It really shows how much our community cares and are willing to help out.”
The event was held during Raceway Park’s last weekend of live racing for the 2009 season, which Shelly Francis, senior director of Special Events for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, feels is one of the reasons for the success of the event.
“After seeing the popularity of Raceway Park’s annual Buckeye/Wolverine Weekend last year, we knew that we wanted to have the event during the festivities again this year. We cannot thank Raceway Park and Penn National Gaming enough for all of their support and hard work in helping make this event a success. We look forward to making 'Run for the 65 Roses' an annual success which will continue to help us in our ultimate goal of controlling and eventually curing Cystic Fibrosis,” she said
Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease affecting tens of thousands of Americans. More than 10 million Americans, or approximately one in 31 people, are unknowing carriers of the defective CF gene. This gene leads to chronic and life-threatening lung-infections and impaired digestion. When the CF Foundation was created in 1955, few children lived to attend elementary school. Today, because of research and care supported by the CF Foundation with money raised through donations from individuals, corporations and foundations, the median age of survival for a person with CF is in the early to mid 30s.
(Raceway Park)