Music. Well, hi, team. I'm Fitz Kohler. You're very noisy. race announcer from fitness.com and the fitness show. Welcome to my show powered by the Donna National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer. Tonight, we're going to talk about all the fun we have. In fact, we're not really going to talk about all the fun we have because there's not enough time for that. We could talk your ears off from now until infinity because there was so much goodness this past weekend, but we're going to tell you a lot.
Know that this video will remain on the Donna Facebook page, on mine, on the Fitsness YouTube page. This will also, the audio will be uploaded to Spotify and Amazon. So if you want to share it, and you should, you can do so in a bunch of places and you can come back and listen because obviously you just want to keep listening to this over and over again, right? You could go to sleep each night listening to us recap all the big fun we had during the Donna Marathon Weekend.
Listen, I want to hear your experiences too. So use the comments section wherever you are. Say hello. You can ask questions and you can share your fondest memories too, because this is a conversation and we want to hear from you. And when I say we is not just me, it's the woman who puts it all. That's right. It's the executive director of the Donna Foundation, our race director, and so much more. The beautiful, the talented, she even smells really good, Amanda Napolitano.
Hey, everybody. Good evening. And how are you feeling, Princess Amanda? I feel great. I feel great. I'm so excited by the weekend. It could not have gone more perfectly. Obviously, we always take notes and we always want to hear feedback and all of the things. Nothing is ever truly perfect. But, oh, my gosh, I will be high on that weekend for at least another year until we can get back together again. Yeah, that's actually, I mean, that's the thing. It's such a high because it's something.
Fun. And I would say perfect's boring. So you're right. I never bite off on perfect being a thing, but everything went the way it was supposed to go. And everybody showed up happy and everyone was successful. It just was so great. And here's the thing. You had so many moving parts. It wasn't just like a race or two or four races. There were all of the different things going on and they were all just world-class, Amanda.
You really should be proud of the output you and your team create because it's extraordinary. You know, it was the first year since the pandemic that we had the full schedule of events. Like, everything brought back. You know, everything from the education that Mayo Clinic brought into the expo this year to honoring our amazing fundraisers, which meant so much to me to be able to do to say thank you, because that is not, you know,
something that people are forced into doing, right? That is absolutely a choice. So being able to honor them with our dinner this year, and, you know, the weather was good, which always helps. Also, the first time that it has been beautiful since 2020. So all of the stars aligned. And yeah, everything, everything. I mean, it would have been reasonable, like your fundraising dinner. And we'll get to talking more about that. But it was...
It was so posh and beautiful and just, I don't know. I don't know how you do it. I don't know. I wouldn't want to have your job because I would fall short, way short of what you create for sure. Well, and clearly I don't do this by myself, right? I have the amazing and wonderful Claire Cameron, who is so involved in all of the things.
She and I did all of this work together in conjunction with, you know, with our Julio, who manages all of our volunteers, and Michelle that handles all of the runner relations. And, you know, our leads at the Expo, between Carolyn and Patty and Paula and Kimberly. And I mean, you see what I mean, right? It absolutely, my entire board, we have an extraordinary board of directors that are so hands-on and so ready to do anything I need them to do, even on short notice.
You met Michelle Brooks this year that works for FIS, that brought her corporate events game to everything. She helped us do the fundraiser dinner as well as Athletes Village this year. Okay. So thank you, team. I could not do any of this without you. And I'm so appreciative. Yeah. And your team is out in full force. And they're so enthusiastic. I mean, just from your board members to ambassadors. They want to be squad. So much energy and fun. So good. So good.
So we could bounce around. And we probably will bounce around. But I like to kind of go in order because it helps me in everything. So your expo, spectacular again, and it was so busy and, you know, I bounce around the country. I see different expos and not all of them have bounced back, but yours has. And not only all the, the vendors and. Well, you had the speaker series and then there was the opportunity to play football and back. So what was your favorite part about the expo?
I think the favorite part about the expo for me, and I mentioned this earlier, is having Mayo and their amazing team come and provide education. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, Donna Marathon Weekend is a part of our survivorship education and awareness programming. So it's very important to us to give our community an opportunity to learn.
And so having that, you know, on the floor Friday and Saturday with a mix of some just amazing topic and subject matter, which, by the way, we will get out on our website so that everybody can go back and listen to some things you might have missed. If you couldn't be there, you know, the whole weekend. That's super important to me.
And we could not do that expo if it were not for the Jaguars Foundation and the Bold Events team who work with us to provide the facilities and to run all of the production work. What a great team to work with. I mean, they were just fabulous. So, yeah. Yeah, so organized. And I really do feel strongly that, okay, we're there to raise a lot of money and you did, and we'll talk about that too, but how do we convince these people to... Find cancer early, prevent cancer, find it early.
And then we have so many cancer survivors that show up that those, some of those educational programs were great to support them because it's, it can be confusing. You're going through it and you're thinking, how do I keep going through it? Right? Right. Right. And, you know, exercise is medicine. That was probably one of my favorite topics. I'm like, yes, move your body. That's, that's why we do the runs. So I've heard.
Makes you makes you healthy yeah yeah so lots of good stuff let's let's go through and say hi for to our friends we have andrea latraverse her and her their daughter and jeremy were out in full course he was in his firefighter outfit which i love andrea lucky you right right lucky him too, lucky you i would if i were married to a firefighter i would make him roam around the house in his fireman outfit all the time. And if I were married to a doctor, I would make him wear scrubs.
I'm just that kind of person. I like outfits. Really? Or men with jobs. How about that? Men with jobs. These are important things. Mailman, he'd be wearing a mailman outfit. Okay. That was off track. Laurie Abbey. Streaker. What's up? That's incredible. 18 years strong. So many. How many streakers do you have? We have 100. That's wild. It's crazy. Now, I haven't done the analysis yet of, you know, sort of where we are following this year.
But yes, coming into this year, we had 100. I had a handful of people check in that somehow dropped off the list and shouldn't. So, you know, it is not the easiest of analysis to do. We've been on multiple registration platforms over the years, and people change their names, and they change their email addresses. We're not collecting social security numbers over here. So it's like, but, but, you know, at this point we know everybody, right? They're part of the family.
So, and we've got some great streaker photos and, and our survivor photos that we'll share. So those, we have them. So look, look in your inbox, probably Friday or Monday, and we're going to get those shared out with everybody. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Those are always very meaningful when we get together. One of the things I wish is that we could all stay together.
Like if there was a hour long experience for just survivors, like maybe next year where they play football, we could have a little corner of the expo for everybody. Oh, that could be fun. I love that idea. I love that idea. And we are going to start streakers. Hear me. we are going to start putting together some type of streaker. Committee. I use that word. A fun team. Committee sounds all corporate.
But, you know, we're approaching 20. And that's not something that I want to plan, you know, six months out, right? I want us to go ahead and start having those conversations of what do we want to do, you know, for our team as we go into our 20th year. So look for that. Yeah, 20 is a biggie. 20 is a... Okay, I want to show you that Andrea said that he does roam around in his fire. Oh, there you go, Andrea.
You have to know these things. Okay, so for everybody tuned in, please use the comments section to tell us what races you ran or walked and then what your favorite memories were because we want to hear all about that good stuff. So, Expo, spectacular. Congratulations. And I think it was also a home run for all the vendors there. They all looked really busy and whatever they invested to be there. I have a good, I have good faith. They probably came out on the winning side of that.
That means a lot. There's such diversity in what's in there, right? It's so different from a traditional marathon weekend expo because you have this mix of, you know, healthcare providers and sort of that, you know, community champions that have, you know, support groups and things for survivors to, you know, my hair salon was there with Studio Sage putting all the pink in the hair and they just opened a head spa. So I saw him over there giving all kinds of gout massages.
I'm like, oh, this is great. But anyway, just super fun, diverse group of vendors and sponsors there. Yeah. And it's a really nice place to connect with people. I find especially for, you know, I'm in a unique position, but I'll see people and I can give them maybe 12 seconds of a hug and a high at the start line and then got to get back to work type thing. And then when you walk into the expo, you can just stand around and chit chat and catch up and actually connect with people.
Did you get into the tasting garden that Sunny Wines brought? No, I didn't see that. So yeah, they had four registered participants over the age of 21. You could go and taste some of their wines. I love that they are a partner of ours because it is truly a healthier choice in your wines. It's, you know, no sugar and less alcohol. And so to give people an opportunity to to find out what they're like. They had a tasting in the expo on Friday and Saturday. It was fun.
How did I miss that? I don't know. Cause it was right, right at the exit. Like, right. You can't, you have to walk by it to leave. You're a stupid person, but next year, next year. So, so expo was fantastic. Hold on. We've got some good feedback. Well, I'm going to get there. We'll get there after. The VIP celebration on Friday night, beautiful, beautiful. That's been nice. All the D-Squad members are invited to those things, right? They are, yes.
You know, our board and our D-Squad do a great job of helping us thank and honor, you know, our sponsors and special guests and top donors. You know, I'm one person, so I can't talk to everybody there. It's nice to have an extension of the team to make sure people feel welcome and appreciated. I mean, that's really what the all of these events, you know, that we have for the weekend is to make sure people feel appreciated and thanked properly.
Well, one of the things I thought is with the ambassador programs for many other races, they don't have those type of perks. They don't get to go to fancy parties and be a part of the extra thing. And that's a real incentive for people to give being an ambassador a go. And it comes with effort, right? They have to pitch in more and do more. But when they show up, there's an opportunity to put on a cute dress and some heels or flax, whatever you wear.
That's a real nicety. And it's a great party. That was a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Oku Sushi does an amazing job as host and sponsor. Verizon made it possible with their sponsorship of that event. Best sushi to me here at the beach. Such good sushi. There we go. And Lorraine concurs. Also, Lori said that Sunny with a Chance of Flowers. Sunny with a Chance of Flowers. That's right. They're also at Publix. They are. They are at Publix. And I believe right now they are BOGO.
Oh, that's so funny. You're reading everybody's mind. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're a BOGO until it's the S. These are important facts. What's great is that I know, like, I know Carrie very well. She's like, they're BOGO. And I'm like, yeah, of course Carrie knows that. Cheers, Carrie. Well, if Sunny with a Chance of Flowers is watching, apparently they have made an impact with our audience, my friends. My goodness, my goodness. Okay. And then the 5k.
So I, obviously I think starting and finishing inside the stadium is pretty special. The acoustics are tough on me, but the whole situation is wonderful for everybody else. And the setup, it was different, but I didn't feel like anybody missed anything. I agree. It was, it's an interesting, I mean, there was a lot of changes with the configuration of the Expo and the 5K and the Donna Dash with the stadium undergoing its renovation.
So, you know, leading up, there were things changing and moving all the time. And that's why I'm so appreciative of the Jaguars Foundation team and the Bold Events team. For, you know, we were just very transparent with one another about all of this, right? Like the construction trailers are going to come. I think they're going to be here.
We're not real sure, but we're going to make this work. And so every day, you know, Carrie is giving me an update on, well, this got put here and this got put there because the fencing just went up after the Jags finished their season. So this has just been in the last couple of weeks. It hasn't been, you know, months ago. So, and then our partners at PRI, you know, were able to bring in the Jumbotron so that we could still have that big, you know, screen effect of everybody finishing.
So it turned out really great. I loved it. Yeah. I think bringing the video screen outside was really the thing that gave it back the oomph that we have in the same because people really like Like running and seeing their faces on the screen.
Yeah, and there were 2,000 people out there. So, you know, when we're going through all of the Joan Benoit Samuelson welcoming everyone, our Olympian and Donna and Dr. Perez and all of our VIP saying words at the beginning, if you're in the back, you're not seeing it. Right. Well, it's sort of nice to see, to get a visual. That's wonderful. Okay, do you want to hear my, of course, moment? This is my inside baseball. I'm sure people who were paying attention saw it.
But right after the anthem, when it came back to me, and I was told, stand in this place so people can see your face. And right as it came back to me, my nose started to run and I had to go like that. You wiped your nose on the Jumbotron? I wiped my nose on the Jumbotron. It was that or have a running nose down my face on the Jumbotron. So I had to choose. Yeah. So next time we need to put our tissues in our pockets so we don't have to use the back of our hand kind of thing.
I know I normally have tissues, but yeah, I had a tissue. You don't want to be like honk, honk on the Jumbotron. So now that's what I was like. I know, typical stuff. My mother would be like, come on. I especially enjoy Donna interviewing basically each of our 110 athletes before they left. Like giving them an opportunity to say, you know, who they are, why they're there. So many repeat champions there joining us. I thought that was very cool.
I wonder why, you know, all of them had a reason why they were out there. I enjoyed seeing that. Well, yeah. And if you're going to run 110 miles for crying out loud, it's kind of cool to at least be able to speak a few words, right? Yes, yes. You get to talk in the microphone if you plan to run 110 miles. Notice to everybody, if you would like to speak in the microphone, that's how you do it. Honestly, sometimes it's scary turning the microphone over to people at a live event.
You never know what you're going to get, right? You never know, yeah. But you and Donna are pros at facilitation, so it's all good. Yeah. And it's actually great that she did it because she can't get fired. Yeah, this is true. One, one time a few years ago, I think it was like three years ago, we had a volunteer at the finish line and I had just said, can you help me target survivors?
I think it was my first year with you and I was just trying to grab everybody and it was, and so I was like, just help me, just help me find people with the pink bib and stuff. And so we'd been doing that for a few hours. And then I said, I need to use the port-a-potty. Can you hold this? I said, yes. And I went running over. I'm in the port-a-potty. And all of a sudden, I hear her talking on the microphone.
Oh, God. I mean, that could go so wrong. I was like, you can't say anything on the microphone. She's like, you gave it to me. I was like, I asked you to hold the microphone. Hold the mic. I know. It's dangerous. But again, Donna can handle all that. Brian Goodell with Bibboards. We love you too, Brian. Hey, Brian. He's so great. I just got to hang out with him at the Running USA conference. He's such a doll. But yeah, so at the 5K, we met Zach. I don't know if you've met Zach before, but Zach...
Was, oh, actually, I think it was at the 5K. Zach also has had breast cancer. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's living with it. He's got stage four metastatic breast cancer. And it's just, I mean, of course, we don't want anybody to have it. You know, we always have Jim Keegan, who's our guy, right? And then now there's Zach. And there was Michael there and Keith. There were four male breast cancer survivors there this weekend.
That was a total anomaly, right? I am so honored that these men came out and participated. And it's so important what they're doing. You know, because we can talk about it all day long. But until you see these men out there, you know, with the survivor bibs and running, I mean, that that is more powerful than any brochure that we can put on a table talking about, hey, guys, you need to feel your stuff, too.
Right. And if you feel something, say something, talk to your doctor about it. It is so important. While while pretty rare, it can absolutely still still happen. So, yeah, loved that. And just in general, I can remember, you know, 18 years ago, you know, when this thing first got started and in the first, you know, decade of Donna Marathon Weekend, having real conversations about how we overcome this perception of being a women's only race.
You know, people truly thought that it was just a race for women. And so for a long time, we were like, how do we reach the guys? And this year, when we ran out of men's shirts, as much as I hated to run out of men's shirts and have to frantically call, We need some more guy shirts. We need some more dude shirts. I was so excited to have that be the issue. What's the breakdown? What's that? So it used to be like 70-30, maybe even 80-20 in the early days of women to men. And now it is 60-40.
Wow. So we are really getting to a balanced state of affairs out there. And so guys, welcome. Yeah. You are welcome. This is as much a race for you as it is for the gals. So that's good stuff. Yeah. I mean, obviously, our men who get breast cancer, but it's, you know, they're sick of losing their wives and their moms and their sisters and their besties and daughters. So, yeah, it's one of those diseases, golly, everybody should be in on. And it feels like it is.
I host other women-themed events that just don't have the same male showing. And to me, it feels very even. Yeah. Yeah. Also, Saturday's at a football stadium and Sunday, it's just a great race, right? I mean, whatever the cause is. Yeah, I mean, there's that, right? It is a legitimate Boston Marathon qualifying course that is certified and fast and, you know, a well-executed event that women and men alike can enjoy. So that's good stuff.
Okay, hold on. We got some comments. Let's look at our, our viewers. There's my Carolyn. She's so great. Well, it's amazing. Lorraine, great job of taking care of the streakers. Got it. Do you remember the song, The Streaker, or The Streak? They call it The Streak. That one? Boogity, boogity. Yeah. I really just wish one of them would strip down once. Oh, no, no. I know, I know. These are my wishes, not the organization's wishes, but I do wish that. That would be a lot of fun. Don't you think?
And, gosh, was Renee not just beautiful on the mic? and, and, okay. So I get the jitters before I run. Like if I'm going to run a race, you know, if I'm a runner, like I'm, I, I, if I can feel it going down and we will be right back. Do your hips, glutes, quads, and hamstrings need extra support while running?
Of course they do. Both soothing and comfortable compression tights by Leo Reve boosts blood and lymphatic circulation while increasing muscle pliability, which helps prevent fatigue and injury. Made for men and women of all speeds. Check out the superior balanced compression tights made right here in America. Visit leoreve.com. That's L-E-O-R-E-V-E-R.com. We're back. Well, that's what she does, right? I know. She's a pro.
I'm just like, oh my gosh. But she did say to me, she goes, She goes, do I have to go up there because I really want to be down? You know, she wanted to be ready to get herself ready to run. And I don't think we could have gotten many more people up in that lift this year. It was kind of swaying. Did you notice that? It was like. Yeah. Sometimes I'm in very treacherous situations, honestly. I'm like, oh, I hope I don't die up here. But if I do, what a way to go. Right.
OK. So if folks don't know what we're talking about at the start line of the Happenful on Sunday, a brilliant lamb and it gets a scissor lift. Like one of those little things that just hoists you up into the sky. And it was Amanda, myself, Joan Benoit Samuelson, the preacher and his son, the preacher man. Yep, preacher man. Beautiful boy. Yeah, so it's just this perfect elevated spot to be able to connect with everybody as they're coming to and through the start line, getting down.
So the scissor lift came down with us on it, which was fun. Woo-hoo, right? And then everybody started getting off. And Joan got up and then there was a very nice op to me. I can't remember who it was, but he put his hand out to me and I said, oh, I need to get something. So I went back to the table to get my notebook and my cowbell and stuff. So my arm was full. But when I was trying to get out of the scissor lift, I, he wasn't there.
So I was like, I'm just going to do it myself. So I could start going down, facing forward. And then I started sliding, started sliding. I hooked my arm around this pole and Joan came and caught me. And Joan was like, oh, and she grabbed me around the way so I didn't eat it. But then this, I think it was this morning I woke up and it's like, I got this bruise here. And I was like, did Joan bruise you? No, it's from where I dangled off. Oh, where you hung on the bar. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. But it took me about an hour to figure it out. I was like, where did that come from? What did I do? What did I do? So anyways, race announcing. It's contact sport. You never know. Never know. That's very dangerous. Very dangerous. So Saturday, fantastic. The Donna Dash is great. I love that you just call it the Donna Dash and not the kids race because we had so many pure adults come out to do it. We had a few women who came to kill it.
They ran just under, it was like sub eight minutes. And then just a bunch of other people who thought one mile was the right distance for them. And it made me grateful you didn't call it a kids race. No, I mean, kids, kids and families are certainly welcome. Yeah. But, you know, from the very beginning of all of this, we wanted there to be something for everyone.
You know, it's why we do the Donna 110 mile a day that a lot of you and your athletes did starting in October of we can all move our bodies, whether it's for 10 minutes a day, you know, that we start in October to, you know, the the the one mile Donna Dash to the the two mile, you know, Pete's bar call. 5k to the half to the full. I mean, you know, there's, there's something in there that all of us can do.
Yeah, it was great. And I highly recommend for everybody, put this in your little bank for next year, do the 110 mile virtual challenge. And so even if you're doing the full or the half or the 5k, do this as an extra thing, just to obligate you to fitness through the holiday. So I have an online training group on the Hottie Body Fitsness Challenge on Facebook. And I just told my folks, I said, how about we do this?
And lots of them did it. I don't know what the numbers are. I'm sure most of them use my discount code, but there was a huge group. One of my guys said he did 800 miles. Sean Matlock, he won the 110 mile challenge. Yeah, you're right. He did. Crazy. It was crazy. And then other people did 400. I stopped blocking line, mostly right after I hit 110, but it was just a really nice motivation to stay active and keep going.
So the first year that we did it, it was one of the things that my, my neighborhood got involved in that year and it would make me so happy. So my, my window, you know, looks out to the neighborhood street and it would make me so happy every afternoon. I would look out the window and I would see my neighbors just, you know, headed out for their walk. And I knew that's what they were doing. And I don't know, it was just cool to see. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. You're the, you're the inspiration. Great for families, you know, husband, wives, your kids. I mean, Anna did it one year when she was like 11, 10. Yeah. Oh, if you've got your whole family involved, I just think as a fitness pro and I look, I think that's a quality of life. That's a real game changer for someone who may not want to come to Jacksonville or do any of our races. OK, stay in Wyoming and do it. And your money is going to a great cause.
And you're having this motivation and you're putting those medals and shirts in the mail soon. So, right. They are, they are being worked on right now. We're in the process of getting it packaged and weighed to make sure that it has the correct amount of postage so that they don't all come back because that would be awkward. Oh, it would be loud. Well, yeah, we're definitely in, in motion of getting everything packed up and mailed out to everybody.
Okay. We're going to talk about the fundraising dinner and then we're going to show our highlight video and talk about Sunday. Are you ready? Yes. So, and Lorraine loved the fundraising dinner. So beautiful. And folks, if you would like to go to fancy events during Donna Marathon weekend, easy access. You can be part of the solution. An even bigger contributor than just running. You can raise funds. And there are, this was a wonderful perk. And I've never been to this fundraising
dinner before because I came in after the COVID stuff. It was exquisite. It was so good. Tell everybody about the fundraising. So, you know, it's an it's an evening of gratitude. So it's not a fundraiser. So you're not in the room and we're asking you for money. No, that is not it at all. It is those of you that choose to fundraise. Saturday night, we had all of our fundraiser experience team members invited.
So if you committed to raising that $1,000 for the Donna Foundation, you were in the room, you can bring a guest, and you're at a table with someone from our organization, whether that's a D-Squad member or a Donna board member that's there to thank you, to get to know you, right? You know, if you're going to make this choice, we don't want you to just kind of pass by and us never get a chance to get to know you.
So the only way in my house that you get to know somebody really well is to sit down and have a meal. So that's what we did. We also had some of our patients in the room that we serve through the Donna Care line. So we invited, you know, a family to come up and say a few words and she preached. It is always so interesting to me, hands down, the faith that people have when they've experienced that sort of, faced that sort of diagnosis and needing to lean into us for help.
You know, such, such, such faith and love that come out the other end of it. Yeah. And, and our guest speaker was Karan and she's living stage four breast cancer and she's just so filled with grace and appreciation and it's tough. It's tough. It's a very difficult situation, but to look at the good and to be so grateful is very, very meaningful. So good. So good. Yeah. So, so great to put, you know, real human beings to all of this, that it's, we exist.
We're doing the work and to get to meet everyone is, is, is super fun. The fundraising goal for the weekend was $200,000. And as of yesterday, we surpassed our $200,000 mark. Right now we're at 2001, 356. Holy mackerel. Yeah. And, you know, and with those funds, you know, we're able to help about a thousand families living with breast cancer. Right. So, I mean, these are real needs because we care for the financial critical
needs for families living with breast cancer. We sort of need the financial. So those dollars are super important. Yeah. And it was a fun night too. You never know what you're going to get with a, like a dinner, but thank you for asking me to host it. I, everybody was in such good spirits. It was so fun. We had so many good laughs and yeah, I was, I was very pleased with the environment and the atmosphere. Just good people all the way around. Right. And beautiful venue.
It's a private event, a space that overlooks Runner's Village. So, you know, in addition to this lovely dinner that we had, Chef's Garden did an amazing job. And my girl, Liz Stewart, put in the flowers and her floral designs are out of this world. You know, Private 131 in Jacksonville Beach is this balcony that overlooked Runner's Village, you know, before with all the tents. And you could see beyond that, the ocean with the sun setting. I mean, it was just, it was just beautiful.
Yeah, absolutely gorgeous. And again, great people. And you've got the big check behind you. Is that from Love Car Wash? Love, what a fun team. So they were at my table. I got a chance to sit with them. And what a super fun team of people that are committed to us for the next, you know, three years of, of supporting our financial aid fund with the, with the Donna Care line.
Actually, right now they're, they're doing a fundraiser for us to go get your car washed and those dollars will come back to the Donna Foundation. But one of the coolest part of the night, right, is we're sitting at dinner, we're having dinner and these guys are marathoners, right? You know, that's part of the reason why they know who we are is because they're marathoners and, you know, kind of putting two and two together that way.
And Mike, actually, my husband noticed the guys were, they were searching. They were Googling and they were looking and they were, you know, you could tell they were looking something up on their phones. And Mike leaned over and he goes, yes, that is Joan Benoit Samuelson. They were starstruck. It was so fun. They were like, oh my God, that's Joni Benoit. She's so wonderful. She is. Yeah, she's great. Yeah, I mean, what an incredible athlete. Still an incredible athlete.
Very modest about it, but hell on wheels when she gets on a road. And just so nice and... All the things. Folks, if you don't know who we're talking about, she's the first woman to ever won gold medal in the Olympic Games, 1984, Los Angeles. She made America look damn good. She made America damn proud. And she's won the Chicago Marathon. She's the race director, the founder of the Beach to Beacon, just a big contributor in this sport. And she's one of the founders of the Donna Foundation, right?
Well, she was invited for our inaugural marathon and said, and of course she didn't have to say yes. And she did say yes, thankfully. And she came down and, and I really do think that meeting our team and, and really understanding the impact that we're making with patients, she has said yes every year since, you know, outside of a few pandemic moments here and there.
But in addition to Joni coming here and, you know, helping us with Race Weekend and bringing her notoriety and, you know, just her person into the festivities. She also invites us up to participate in Beach to Beacon, which allows me to watch what she and her team do with that event and meet some of the industry professionals. Many of the connections that I've made, you know, for our event, I've made up at her event. And so it's women helping women, y'all, right?
Lifting each other up and making each other successful, which is super fun. It's the nice girl thing, which, again, I always tell you, it's so refreshing. It's so refreshing. It's not everywhere. But in the Donna Foundation, it's real and it's strong. And I'm very grateful for it. Always. Always. And you know what? I mean, obviously, Donna Foundation is so legit when it comes to the breast cancer and the good work you're doing. But Joni comes in and it's so legit with the running side of things.
Right. And it's both. Right. It is both. Yeah, it sure is. It sure is. And you, talented, athletic, competitive racer, for sure. That's a big deal. I get it. Yeah. I mean, if we wanted to do charity walk, we could do a charity walk. That's not what we wanted from the very beginning. We want to be the national marathon to finish breast cancer. And that comes with all of the, you know, marathon planning and logistics.
And, you know, we want people racing out there in addition to serving a great cause. Yeah. And they are. And they are. Okay. Are you ready to see the video? I am. Is everybody else ready to see the video? I think they are. It's good. Okay. All right. Here we go, folks. Buckle up. That's last year's. Buckle up. I hope this is it. Music.
The best let's do it again i know everybody will be out there tomorrow can we meet out there and do it again tomorrow again oh love it so much greg dorsey and astorio for putting that together oh well done it's perfect and with a lot of me kelly who provided one of the images for the front of it. It was a beautiful job, guys. What a spectacular day. Just so happy. I mean, I'm going to throw the big P word at it. It's perfect. It was.
Yeah. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I can't wait. We have another year. Why don't we? February 1st, 2026. Yeah, we're going to have to do some planning. Okay. So we, we get out there. It's chilly. It's brisk. It's not terrifyingly cold. It was lovely. The sunrise was creeping up. You had all the elements together. Yeah. Favorite part of the morning, pre-race. Are you asking me what my favorite part was?
There was a moment when, you know, we were looking out over just everyone in the park and the sun was peeking up over the ocean and we could see it, you know, this little ball coming. It was just, it was knowing that the day was going to be so special. Yeah. There was a little, little moment there. Yeah. This part was pretty great too. And people show up with the, just the joy, just the energy.
I'm an energy person and I feel like I was Thanos, but the good one, like a happy Thanos, like where all the energy is being sucked in or whatever. I can feel it as they get out of their cars and they start walking up. It's electrifying. It's just so good. And then I love when we get all the survivors together. So Saturday when we did our little survivor huddle at the start line, at one point I locked eyes with Donna and we both went just like, both burst.
And it's, you know, it's, it's so wonderful to be surrounded by this camaraderie. Right. But also it's just so much suffering and I want better for them and me too and Donna and stuff. So on Saturday, she and I locked eyes, and it was one of those, like, don't do it. I said, no, don't cry, don't cry. Cry not to. And Sunday, we huddled up after our group picture, and it was just pure joy. And Donna looked at me. She goes, don't make me cry. And I was like, can't we cry? It's just so, so happy.
You have people come out on Sunday morning, and it's game time. They are ready to not only to run, but they're ready to play. It's just special. It is. It is. And I'm understanding from hearing from all of you that our neighborhoods, I mean, they're always bringing their game. But I think they brought game upon game upon game out there this year. Yeah, that's what I heard. It looks so pretty. Thank you, neighbors. And they all do that by themselves, right? That's kind of just theirs.
Yeah, I mean, that's just, you know, block parties. You know, there are a few that are always out there that I know of, that I know the teams. And I love hearing the stories of how, you know, decorating their block brings their neighborhood together once a year. And it's how they see each other and, you know, they plan and they build balloon arches in their garages. And, you know, it's a reason for you to hang out and do some fun things with your neighbors.
It's like a holiday. It's kind of like Halloween, but different. Yes, exactly. But, I mean, this year, it was like there was not, you know, a dead zone in the whole course, I'm told. Does it make you sad that you don't get to see it? Is there anything better than the finish line, Fitz? No, nothing. Okay. Just not. So, you know, because I can hop in a lead car, you know, and be on the course.
You know, with public safety, I'm sure that that would be fine for me to do, but I just, I, yeah, you're a smart woman. I love, I love the finish line. I love being there to welcome everybody home. So good. So good. But before we get there, the start line. Yes. Fun. Yeah. So, so fun. And that's my favorite. Well, golly, I always say the start line is my part start, my favorite part. It's the only time where we're all together.
You know, there's these times where the finish line people are trickling through and the expo and this and that start line really it that's the only 100 moment in the entire weekend and oh it's a good time isn't it a good time such a good time and i feel like we had 276 waves of start this year they just kept coming i'm like where are these people coming from i mean it took us you know 20 minutes to get everybody over the line you know maybe
even more than that it was like it was time to start the the. Pete's Bar Crawl and we were still getting marathoners and half marathoners over the line. Well, that's why the more the merrier. And everybody needs to invite at least 53 friends to come because at the start, I was told we're going to have four waves and I'm a start line junkie. So the more waves, the better. We get a little private interaction with each group and silly fun with each group.
And then I was told we're going to have another one and another one. And Amanda goes, I've got more waves. More waves. More waves. Such a good time. Yeah. And they're just, they're happy and they're dancing. And it's just joy. It doesn't look like anyone in those corrals is nervous or afraid to go for their run. No, not at all. And, you know, we'll, well, not that we weren't prepared, but we anticipate that this, you know, growth will continue.
So we're going to plan for all of you to bring your friend next year, right? We're good with that. Everybody bring a friend, bring someone who's never been, but just bring a friend here. And so we will, you know, make sure that we are planning for those five waves and six waves instead of four. 12. Yes. 12 waves. Yeah. That was a good time. And then the Pete's bar crawl. So fun. I mean, everybody, I thought we were going to have 75 people when Amanda told me about it. There was 500 of them.
And I felt like I was sending them off to go to a frat party or whatever. They had so much fun. And, you know, the team at Pete's and others that were there were telling me that it was just a super fun party. And Beaches Town Center had energy all day long. So it met the objective. Yeah. Giving everybody an opportunity to be out there with us and... And spend the rest of the day ringing a cowbell in the Beaches Town Center. It's perfect.
Next year, one of our alcohol sponsors should give them each a cocktail to walk with. You know, like kick them off with that type of... I don't know that my public safety teams will appreciate that approach. We would have to fence the entire course to do that. No alcohol beyond this point, you understand? Okay. But no, if you want to participate in the Pete's Bar Donna Crawl, you're going to have to register early because it sold out this year and the capacity is the capacity.
So that one will stay about $500. Okay. Okay. So tell your friends if you're bringing them, if you have a non-running spouse or parent. Get them involved with that, because I think if someone's going to be out on race day, they should be doing something, whether they're volunteering or doing a short distance event. That one certainly is perfect for your children. And we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer?
The Cancer Comeback Series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration and practical guidance with your healthy cancer comeback, my noisy cancer comeback and the Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors. Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount. Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong. Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S.com. Fitzness.com. We're back. So that one will stay about $500.
Okay. Okay, so tell your friends if you're bringing them, if you have a non-running spouse or parent, get them involved with that. Because I think if someone's going to be out on race day, they should be doing something, whether they're volunteering or doing a short distance event. That one certainly is perfect for your cheer squad. And two miles is something almost everybody can do, right? You got it. What is this? Can we make, no, that's hilarious. Can we make that?
No. That would be no. No. No. Okay. So we send them off. And again, the most fun thing, start line. And then also the next most fun thing is our hours and hours of hoopla at the finish line. It's wild. Nobody would believe it. There's so much hoop and law. So much hoop and law. So I was at the Running USA conference, and folks don't know what that is. It's the annual conference for people who organize races from Boston Marathon to Polso, whatever.
I mean, just all over, timers and registration platforms and race directors and ops people. And people would say, well, where were you? I'd say, I was at the Donna. Or they would say, you were at the Donna, right? I would say, think about the most fun you've ever had at a finish line. and I'll multiply it by 30. Yeah. And that's every last one of them. I could look the race director of New York Marathon in the face and say, whatever you have, the Donna, way more than that. It's just incredible.
I think it's the perfect combination of family, like small meets large. Do you know what I mean? It's not big enough to where it has to be all like locked down credentialy and you get through and you can't like have a conversation and celebrate. But big enough to where there's just so much energy. Everyone has their why, which makes the finish line that much more meaningful to them. Like, yes, it could be a PR or just finishing a marathon is enough celebration in and of itself.
But most people have, you know, a story to tell, a reason, a person that they're running for. And it's just so emotional and so much fun.
Sorry, keep talking. my phone my computer's about to die oh dear that can't be good I hope you have electricity there in Gainesville Florida I'm not sure what's going on here in Gainesville oh good now it's plugged in sorry live live broadcast yeah I mean it's it's just happy and we and we had such tremendous volunteers so the Stanton it's the college preparatory school is that correct Stanton, We had, I don't know, 60, 70 volunteers. Julio does a wonderful job bringing in volunteers.
And I mean, they were so cute. I think they were younger. Does college preparatory mean they're not in college yet? Right. So that's a high school. Oh, okay. All right. That makes sense. So they were a little kind of nervous up front at first. And halfway through the morning, I remember last year we had the Sigma Nu fraternities from Jacksonville University. And they were so much fun. So I actually went to the back.
I was going to grab some of the Stanton kids, bring them inside the finish line, like before people get to the finish line to hype them up a little more. And then I see this pack of like kind of, I don't know, gnarly guys. I went, are you Sigma Nuke? He said, yeah. I was like, get here. And they all piled over. And I was like, give us some rowdy fraternity nonsense. And boy, did they ever. That was so fun. that the Sigma News do such a great job, you know, and the Zetas too.
I mean, so we have all of the young people being educated in the finish line, but they bring the party and make people feel so, so special, especially towards the end when, you know, the marathon finishers are a little more of a trickle than, you know, gosh, you know, when the half and the full are both finishing at the same time. It is, it is wild in there.
But, you know, towards the end of the day, having, having those cheer tunnels, I mean, think about what that feels like, having been out on the course for, you know, six hours, and coming home to that much energy. Let's look at, this is our final finisher, coming home to this. Oh, yeah, that's a lot. Look at that. Hmm. I mean, how awesome is that? I believe her name was Prudence, right? No, that's Roxanne.
Roxanne. Her name is Roxanne. And I was actually just chatting with Roxanne this afternoon because, you know, she was kind of leaning in one direction a little bit. And so, you know, I just wanted to make sure that, you know, she recovered. She had a rough day. And I'm actually going to try to pull up what she said about that moment. She said, you know, I had a plan, but things don't always go according to plans, do they?
She said there were a number of factors that caused it not to go according to plan. In fact, the plan totally derailed. By mile 18 of the race, she was in a pain, leaning to one side and bent over, trying to keep going. Then along comes my friend who, after finishing his marathon, comes back to meet me at mile 20 and does whatever he needs to get me through the last 6.2 miles without a do not finish.
The last mile, I couldn't stand up straight at all, and another friend came and literally popped me up until right before the finish line. As I approached the finish line in tears and literally bent over, I was met and cheered on by some very dear running friends and so many bystanders. I was overcome with emotion as I crossed that finish line, seeing all of the love and support shown. Here's where it gets magical.
Isn't this exactly how it is for all of us? We are going through life with a plan, and then all of a sudden that plan gets derailed. The loss of a loved one, a home, a job, a life-altering illness. But there are those who will be by our side, praying for us, encouraging us, and cheering us on as we persevere. And before you know it, what may have seemed impossible is now made possible because of them. Thank you.
Magic, right? So thank you, Roxanne. You're the best. We're so honored to have you race with us each and every year. What a dear. What a dear. And she was, besides Floyd, our sweeper, she was our final finisher. And she was a breast cancer survivor and just all the goodness. All the goodness. I mean, she was the right one. Yep. And, you know, and she was ready to go. She's run the marathon before and, and was trained up and ready to go. And, you know, she just had a day. That's all.
We were there in the finish line and made her feel like the rock star she is. Oh, she was so sweet. Yeah. When she got to me, she was so, so cute. She was pouring her heart out at the finish line as well. It was adorable. Oh, so sweet. Yeah. Just so meaningful. That's why we're there. Right. So whether you've had breast cancer or not, it's a, it's a big day. It's a big thing to do. I always feel like if you've crossed the finish line of a marathon and it's
something doesn't hurt, you didn't do it right. Do it right. You didn't do it right. Something was wrong. And then, but the leaning, I actually, I know how, how, how much pain someone has to be in for the leaning, but I see a lot of leaning. It's a lot of side, a lot of this side. Sometimes it's forward kind of scary. The worst, the most frightening is when people are leaning backwards. Sometimes people are in almost like a backbend position as they're walking.
Get behind, scooch just to make sure nobody goes backwards. But yeah, Prudence, you had the, Roxanne, you had the perfect lean and it was the perfect finish and we wouldn't want it any other way. Right? Right. Oh, so good. So good. So, but that was a last, we had so many just big time, happy finishers. Travis came back. So Travis Lucas has won the marathon two years in a row and he slid down to the half this year because he wants to race Boston. You know what?
I mean, obviously there's world-class folks and one of our incredible Kenyans or Ethiopians always wins that thing or usually wins that thing. But wouldn't it be cool if Travis just showed up in Boston? Oh, Travis, you're listening to this. I'm going to put a Donna Foundation singlet on you and you're going to make us famous at the Boston Marathon by being the champion. Yeah, yeah. I just have those little visions of him doing something big there.
But yeah, so he raced the half marathon so he could save his legs for Boston. And of course he won. So a three-time Donna champion, three years in a row, different races, but wins a win's a win. Wins a win's a win. And then how many survivors did we have around Sunday? I'm not exactly sure Sunday. I'd have to go and look. But for the weekend, we had about 350. Oh, that's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. And that makes me happy because that's growing.
More and more people are joining us and actually checking the box on the form that says, I am a breast cancer survivor. That's a lot of it too, right? is not wanting to, oh, well, I only had, you know, this little thing. It's, come on, y'all. There's no, just like I always say to people who talk about the half marathon, I only ran the, no, no, no. You know, it is, it is, it is a big deal to have that phone call, no matter what the treatment implications are. You know, let us celebrate you.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's very funny, though. I hate checking that box. I do it. I'm honest about it. But it makes me like, I get it. Well, I don't completely get it. But I do. I hear that a lot, I guess I should say. It is. Yeah. Yeah, it makes me a little bitter to check the box. But whatevs. Whatevs, right? But really cool metal at my, you know, in our finish line. So that's right. Extra metals. Extra. Extra.
Check the box for the bling. So it's always wonderful to be able to celebrate each of our survivors and how far out they are. And we have some great stories, two years cancer-free and 26 years cancer-free for Paulette and others. But then of course we have some that are, you know, I just had chemo Monday. Golly, how many of our half and full marathoners are still in treatment and they showed up and they did great, fast or slow.
We actually had quite a few speedsters who are living with stage four breast cancer. In fact, that's one of those. Really meaningful things. I was, I spoke at a Young Survival Coalition event in Vegas in March to a group with metastatic breast cancer. And I was telling them, you know, of course I was talking about nutrition and exercise and stuff.
And I was able to point because some of them are in bad shape or they're just so beaten down from constantly having to go through it, but to say, you know, there can be a light at the end of this tunnel, even living with stage four forever and I see it I just last month I witnessed it at the Donna and there were oodles of people out running a marathon with stage four so of course everyone has their different path but there's a lot of wonderful examples and
I'm grateful they let me grab them and they share their their little tale because it's helpful for those of us who are less or who are closer to our our diagnosis and I think it's meaningful to the crowds they like to hear about what's going on and see the success, see the smile, see the athleticism. Well, and I think that's why I was so appreciative of some of the education, especially on day two. It is how do we live with breast cancer, right? How do we stay healthy and just
have it be this thing? Like, you know. How do I continue to feel good, run marathons, be healthy, living with breast cancer? Yeah, I don't think 20 years ago people might have considered that to be possible. No, not at all. I mean, I know for sure, not at all.
Okay, one of our athletes that I would like to recognize that is not a breast cancer survivor, It's Dr. Clint Collins, who last year ran his half marathon and everybody, he's a urologist and he limited his water intake because he didn't want to have to stop and pee on the course. And he ended up becoming severely dehydrated. And when he, and oh gosh, it was torrential rains and everything. But when he came towards the finish line and I laid eyes on him,
he looked like he had zero blood running through. Yes. Okay. Okay. Gray. Just gray human and his jaw was slack. And I thought, oh crap. So I ran out to him to make sure he didn't eat it at the end. I was calling from medics and I, you know, kind of made sure he didn't hit the ground. He came across the finish line. They grabbed him. He really just needed, I think they gave him an IV. Probably gave him an IV. Yeah. Yeah. So he ended up coming on the Fitsness show on my podcast.
Everyone should go back and listen to that. It's a great interview because not only did he talk about his experience at the Donna and we all make weird decisions. You know, we make, we do weird things, even though we know better and we pay the price. Thankfully his wasn't too horrible, but then, then we talk a lot about incontinence and running and so forth. And he has all these solutions. So if you, if you run and you pee while you run, No, you don't have to.
And Dr. Collins gives out some really good golden nuggets to help anybody kind of. And ladies, especially y'all that have had children, we know you do because it's like one in three. Right. So it happens and there are things you can do to where it doesn't have to happen for you anymore. Hear that. Yeah. Yeah. Non-surgical things. I mean, he really had a list of you can do this. And he says you do not have to pee your pants to run.
So anyways, that was a great interview. But this year, he was very excited to come back and redeem himself and cross that finish line with rosy cheeks. And he did. He scooted in behind me. I was, you know, celebrating a survivor when he crossed the finish line. But he so proudly posted his last year, this year photos next to each other and all the difference in the world.
So congratulations, Clint. So a lot of times when you're celebrating and talking to our survivors, you know, I'm deeper into the finish line. Congratulating other athletes that have come through. And so I remember him finishing because he looked at me and he goes, do you remember me? I'm the gray guy. He did. He was like, I was the guy that was gray. And I'm like, I do remember you. You look much better.
So I remember when he finished. That's funny. Yeah. So when he came and found me too, he was like, look, I was like, oh my gosh, there you are. Yeah. He actually messaged me today. He was like, so should we do a follow-up on the show? I said, yes, but only if you're also willing to talk about penises and prostates and peeing in your pants. And he was like, yes, all the time. So, yeah, which is probably the weirdest text I've ever sent.
All right, I don't need to talk about. But you got to talk about the stuff where people don't know, right? They're just our bodies and we want them to be healthy. You know, just body parts. But yeah, congratulations, Clint, on the rosy cheeks and the strong finish. I think he actually made good time too. In fact, I'd like to make a personal apology to any of you who I missed at the finish line. At most of my finish lines, I don't miss people much.
But at this finish line, it's the number one priority to pour the love and celebrate those who've beat up on breast cancer. So if you got by me, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And if you're one of our survivors who hid from me, shame on you. Don't hide. That's right. That's right. So I do miss some of our athletes, but, I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out. I'm trying not to. How do we do it all?
I think you do an amazing job. I think everyone, everyone listening, give us all a love and a yay Fitz because she does a remarkable job celebrating everyone on our finish line. Wow. I appreciate that. It's so, it's such a luxury to be able to do it. It makes me so happy. I'm thrilled to pull up into Jacksonville every year and, you know, you deliver on the big, big goods, Amanda. There's just so many moving parts and they are all stellar. It's weird. It's kind of weird.
I don't know. 18 iterations, you know. And then you're coming back to see us, right? In May? Yes. Am I invited in May? You're invited to come back to see us in May. All of you are, I mean, you know, this was the start of the Fearless series for the year. So our Fearless series is calendar year. So you've all done your Donna Marathon weekend events. Now next up is to come and do our Donna Mother's Day 5K. It's the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend here in Jacksonville,
which I think is like the 10th or 11th of May. I can't remember off the top of my head. It's the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. You know, make it a weekend. Enjoy Jacksonville. The race is in the beautiful Riverside area, which is just a whole different view of Jacksonville than what you get with downtown or at the beach. So you're all invited back. We're going to open registration on the 26th of February. Oh, Mercedes will be there. We like that Mercedes. That's a wonderful event.
It's smaller, still equally special. It's so great. Someone asked, when will registration for the marathon open? Typically, we open registration around July 1st. So depending on where that falls in the calendar, we don't like to open registration on a Saturday or some, you know, it's like on a Monday or Tuesday. And, you know, we have to make sure our ducks are in a row with the cities and permits and things like that. But July 1st-ish is when you can expect to see registration for 2026 open.
Okay. And then the other big question, which I'm not convinced you have an answer to, is do you have any idea what date Donna TPC will fall on in October? Ha ha! I don't have a date yet, but I can tell you that the working date, just a pencil on your calendar, is going to be the second Saturday of October, which is the 11th. I like that. Saturday, October the 11th. Okay. Pencil it in. And then, do you just have to wait to see if the TPC says, yes, you can have it? Is that how that works?
Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of moving parts inside baseball. One is that we love our partners at the MS Society. And the MS-150 is held out of the parking lots of TPC. And they traditionally have Saturday, October the 4th. So we want to make sure that we're not all, you know, we have some overlapping athletes and, and we don't want to be stepping on each other's toes with, with all sorts of things. So I'm very mindful of that. I do not like to put our events head to head with
other philanthropic organizations. I mean, I think there's room for us all to be successful. So, but yes, the, the other part of it is getting the clearance for the golf course. Okay. It's not so much the, you know, our partners over at the PGA Tour and others, but it's making sure the golf course is available to us. Okay. It's so lovely. It really is. It's, you know, everything you do. Lovely, lovely, perfect. Lovely, lovely, perfect.
Babs, we would love to see you in October. That would make it even more perfecter if Babs would come. No, it's always a better weekend when Babs is there, isn't it? So do you know how to say I love you in Chinese? Mandarin, I guess. We learned this. We were in a Tac Uber in Huntsville, Alabama. Babs is great. She comes to more of my races than this one. So my races are always better when Babs is there. But we were in a Chinese immigrants vehicle.
And I asked him, I said, how do you say I love you in Chinese? And he said, wahine. And to me, it sounds like wahine, which is more fun. But yeah, it's more fun. Wahine. So if you ever see me posting wahine to Babs, you got to know. But yeah, wahine. I'm trying to learn how to say I love you in all the different languages. So when people cross the finish line, I can give them that I've got. A couple, a couple of, someone Muslim, I can say Habibi. That's a fun one.
So anyways, I'm working on all the I love to use, but BABs, everybody loves BABs. Samantha wants to know if the fundraising links are active for the whole calendar year. Great, great question, Samantha. And gosh, she's one of our top fundraisers this year that we celebrated like mad when she finished. But the Donna Marathon Weekend fundraising links are up until the end of February. And then we need to close out this campaign, and then we'll open back up with our Mother's Day campaign, right?
So our Mother's Day fundraising will kick off as soon as we open registration for that event towards the end of February. So that's sort of the next big push of fundraising that we'll have. For those of you that want to fundraise year-round and sort of separate of a run event, we also have, we call it our Donna DIY fundraising platform. So you could set up a fundraiser that would last the whole year. And I can certainly get those links out to everybody. But they're on the DonnaFoundation.org.
Yeah. And how wonderful that people are like, I want to raise more money for you. Raise more, please. That all that does is allow us to serve more patients because there are far more patients who are calling us than we have the capacity to serve them. That's just reality. So the more money we raise, the more patients we're able to serve. It's as simple as that. Yeah. And besides just asking people, will you donate? You could do the lemonade stand and a Zumba-thon and a car wash and anything.
There's a lot of people doing fundraisers at work and creating big sales. And so think outside the box. We've seen a lot of successful. Super Bowl squares are coming up, I'm told. Right? I mean, isn't that this weekend, Super Bowl? Super Bowl is coming. That's right. Anyway, I think there's a thing you can do with like the points and squares. I don't know. Anyway. Okay. I don't know how to do that, but I would do that. I'm encouraging everyone to bet, but it's fundraising.
Gambling. Everybody, yay, gambling, right? That's right. Okay, we've got Dr. Collins piping in. He still has rosy cheeks. We're so proud of you, Dr. Collins. It's so fun. I don't know. I'm going to give you a friend request today. Oh, you should totally friend Dr. Collins. There you go. You're awesome, too, Patty. And then, Lorraine, Caroline's stories are amazing. Dan and I are already thinking about our fundraiser for next year, having met some.
Yeah, that does go a long way to put a face with it, right? We talk a long about numbers, you know, because that's, you know, metrics are metrics, right? Where we talk about, you know, 20,647 patients served and, you know, $6.5 million in support. I mean, you know, those numbers are impressive. But when you put them next to a real live human being, it just becomes so much more powerful. Everything you guys do is powerful, Amanda. Congratulations.
Thank you very much. Thanks for being a part of the family. All of you, thank you for being part of the family. Yeah, I love it. Any final thoughts for our friends, our finishers?
So much gratitude I hope that our social media feeds are full of all of this for at least another week or two so I want to see everybody's just sharing keep sharing all the memories it's so so happy yeah yeah and tag them the 26.2 with Donna reshares which I love that's a really smart thing to do so we can all see each other's fun times I love the being tagged and sharing thing love you Babs Love you, Melissa.
All right. So Amanda, even though they're all tired from running still, I need you to look at the camera and tell everybody to get to work. That's right. It's time to start training again. I'm just kidding. Give you a little bit of a break. All right. I love you guys. Have a great. Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives, so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner.
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