Team Respite

The Respite Center has been deemed one of the five legacy charities by the Boston Athletic Association. This means that each year the BAA gives us a certain amount of official numbers so we can give them out to runners. These runners in turn raise money through pledges for the center. This is an incredible honor, and we would like to thank the BAA for their continuing support. Team Respite will have a combined sixty six people running for the center in 2010. One hundred percent of all marathon pledges go to providing direct services for adults and children in need of care. 

To apply to be a member of Team Respite please call Brandon Rhoads at 508-435-122, or email him at brandonrhoads@msn.com.

This is the eleventh year EMC has been part of our Marathon team. They have also agreed to match the first seventy five thousand dollars their team raises in marathon pledges. There will be twenty people running in 2010 for Team EMC.

His father Jerry, a Natick fireman, needed help caring for Michael while he worked.  Michael had significant disabilities and passed away at the age of twenty-nine.  A year later, Jerry died of the same cancer that had taken Michael.  Jerry and Michael are part of the original fabric of the Respite Center.

In 2004, the Natick fire department established The Jerry and Michael Stanhope Memorial Scholarship.  Over the years, five other fire and two police departments have joined with Natick in their efforts to raise money.  This year the Firefighters Team will join Team Respite to raise funds for the Respite Center’s Scholarship fund. “There is no better way to honor Jerry and Michael than to support the Respite Center,” says one Natick firefighter. 

All teams together will brave the 26.2 miles.  When the hills begin to feel like mountains and a mile feels like ten they will draw their strength from knowing the difference they are making to so many families. The Scholarship Fund they are all running for allows the Respite Center to award hours of respite at no or reduced cost for families who otherwise could not afford services.