ISF and USS 5K for Kids Cancer

5th Annual

Isabella Santos Foundation

5K for Kids Cancer

Presented By:

United Support Services, Inc.

September 22, 2012

Isabella was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at the age of 2. She battled this horrible disease for five long years. On June 28, 2012, at the age of 7, Isabella lost her battle to kids cancer.

The Isabella Santos Foundation still fights to raise funds for kids cancer and Neuroblastoma research. The 5K was held in Isabella's honor this year.

The number of sponsors more than doubled from last year's event and the number of registered racers skyrocketed from 700 last year, to more than 1500 this year. Before the race even began, more then $105,000.00 was raised through donations. A silent auction and raffle was held during the race and produced even more wonderful donations for this great cause, I am certain we made Isabella proud!

Volunteers began arriving around 6:00am to help setup and prepare for the day's events. It was incredible to see how many people came out to show their support for such an amazing little girl and a wonderful cause.

Even the little guys made it out bright and early...he was a tad upset there were no 12 month size volunteer shirts.

All the USS Volunteers jumped right in to man their stations! Things were fully underway before the sun was even up.

The men were assigned to traffic direction and had a blast with it. Samuel became the most comedic traffic director of the day with his body building moves.

This little man had no problems giving orders...he kept his department in check!

Isabella's works of art were reproduced and put up for sale to raise money for the foundation.

White t-shirts symbolized racers...Jonathan, Mike and Yolanda were our brave runners! They also came out early to help wherever they could before the race began at 8:00am.

The raffle table and the silent auction tents were prepped and ready to go...there were so many wonderful raffle baskets filled with fabulous goodies. The silent auction items were all donated from different organizations and individuals and consisted of everything from private cooking lessons to signed Panthers memorabilia to timeshares in St. Maarten!

 

We are very proud of our USS racers: Michael M, Jonathan D, and Yolanda B.

As the sun started to come up, the racers began to arrive and the Panther's Cheerleaders came out to show their support. Isabella loved the Panther's Cheerleaders and was crowned a Junior Cheerleader by the squad, she participated in several events with the team.

The nearer we got to 8:00am the more and more people started to show up...with 1500 racers, there were thousands of family members, volunteers, and community partners.

The weather was just beautiful, some of the leaves had begun to change and fall. It was cool and breezy, perfect weather for a 5K!

Lauren and Louetta managed the raffle and silent auction tables, they got to handle all of the cool prizes.

It is amazing how one little girl can touch so many lives and bring so many people together. There was no cure for Isabella, she battled Neuroblastoma for as long as her little body would let her. We battle to find a cure, so we can help kids like Isabella live longer lives.

Isabella's Daddy, Stuart, welcomed everyone to the race! We were all shocked by how many people came out to run.

They are off....let the race begin!

Our very own, Michael McGilvary won 1st place in his age bracket (20-23)...quite a feat, Mike! Congratulations, we were all routing for you!

The official results!

It was the first year there was a Kids Zone and boy was it a hit! Bouncy houses, chalk, face painting, a photobooth, and balance beam were just some of the awesome activities available.

The raffle drawing and silent auction final were at 10:30am, everyone waited with great anticipation for the results!

It was a very successful day and we sincerely thank everyone who came out to support this wonderful cause!!! Isabella was an amazing little girl and the foundation does some amazing work! We were very proud to be the presenting sponsor and hope to be involved next year too!

The final numbers are in and the race raised $175,000.00 for kids cancer research!!!