Michael's Miracle
Marathon Team
The Michael Lisnow Respite Boston Marathon Race Team
The Respite Center is situated less than a mile from the start of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Every year tens of thousands of runners converge on our doorstep and get ready for their 26.2 mile trip into Boston. We are lucky enough to have a group of those runners raise money for Respite each year.
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. One hundred percent of all marathon pledges go to providing direct services for adults and children in need of care.
If you or someone you know is interested in running the 2022 Boston Marathon as a charity runner, please contact Wendy at wendy.sousa35@gmail.com to sign up.
Team Dell EMC
EMC Corporation, based in Hopkinton Massachusetts, is a world leader in products, services, and solutions for information storage and management. They are also a leader in support for the Respite Center’s Scholarship fund, and to date have raised over one million dollars. This is the 17th 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.
Team Firefighters &
The Stanhope Memorial Respite Scholarship
The Stanhope Memorial Respite Scholarship is named for Jerry Stanhope and his son Michael. Michael began coming to the Respite Center in 1998 shortly after his mother died.
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.