Life, the marathon and making other plans.

Shifting gears on our marathon weekend and the week ahead. 

John Lennon’s quote: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” seems to be the overriding theme playing throughout New York ever since Sandy sidelined the marathon. We all thought we’d be spending Sunday running alongside 40-some thousand other runners to raise awareness and money for our charities. The disappointment we all felt when the marathon was cancelled turned into an outpouring of generosity, impromptu out-of-town marathons and lots and lots of hands-on service.  Here’s what happened in our lives as we shifted gears on our marathon plans. 

Several Team-EMC runners who hadn’t yet arrived in New York held their own improv-marathons in their own cities.  Lauren ran in New Jersey in honor of her sister who died in childbirth.  Erin, our executive director and Beth, our teammate, ran in Washington DC, tweeting their progress mile after mile. Friends and families cheered them on with signs, water bottles, a crowd and a picnic when they reached the finish line. Our 5K runners really came through for us, running on our behalf all over the country.   Thank you, thank you and again we say:  THANK YOU!  We literally couldn’t have run this without you.

As for the New York team? Some couldn’t help but run their miles motivated by training momentum and a sense of responsibility to donors who’d invested in their marathons.  For the rest of us it was a divide and conquer weekend. After meeting up Saturday for a potluck dinner to regroup and re-organize how best to transform our marathon effort, teammates spent Sunday spread out all over the city. Some volunteered in larger organized clean-up efforts while others found smaller direct-service opportunities.

It was in these smaller opportunities that our hearts have been so deeply touched.  One of our dear friends who is a mom and EMC supporter needed help cleaning up the destruction that took place in her seaport restaurant.  Neighbors, friends and strangers pulled on their gloves, picked up their shovels and pitched in. Some watched children as parents joined recovery crews, others grabbed pizzas and made sandwiches to keep workers and displaced neighbors fed.

The spirit of service was as intense as the spirit and energy of any marathon and we had to wonder, which was actually more powerful – the run or the opportunity to help people in need. In the midst of all the marathon/clean up confusion, many of us were still without power, gas, Internet and the usual comforts of home and we were reminded that for billions of people in the world, this is normal life. The hassles we experienced trying to get from place to place, neighborhood to neighborhood is nothing compared to what people in the developing world experience every day.  And considering our marathon effort was all about shining a light on the distances and transportation issues that prevent women from getting the healthcare they need, our life-experiences this weekend couldn’t have driven that message home better if we’d planned it ourselves.

We hope our make-shift marathons and the ongoing volunteer efforts we’re all immersed in will more than make it up to our donors, partners and supporters for all of us who did not complete those 26.2 miles.  Rest assured every penny you helped us raise is still going to support vulnerable moms around the world. In the past few weeks we've announced two new grants that EMC dollars will be supporting. We’re funding training for 15 women in Haiti to become skilled birth attendants who will each attend at least 100 deliveries per year. We’re also providing transport vouchers for women in western Uganda so they can access safe maternity care when they’re ready to deliver.

Until race day, we couldn't know how much we would raise through the marathon effort, but so far we’ve received $165,000 and more is still coming in. What’s really incredible is, those donations kept coming even though the marathon was cancelled. Now that we have a solid figure to work with, we can commit to continuing ongoing funding to these two grants and others like them. In fact, Christy, Erin and Jessica, our new portfolio manager, will be traveling to Uganda this weekend to visit sites and report back on the impact of the initial transport voucher grant. We look forward to sharing stories of impact from these initiatives regularly.

Check back throughout the week as we highlight opportunities to help families affected by Hurricane Sandy and stories of mothers who are picking up the pieces and moving forward.   We never wanted our efforts to help mothers here at home to come through a disaster like this, but as John said:  Life is what happens… For all of us here at EMC…it’s a good reminder that indeed, Every Mother Counts, now more than ever.