Grant-A-Starr Foundation’s 7th Annual Family Fun Run and Walk

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Plans are underway for the 7th Annual Grant-A-Starr Foundation Family 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run Walk to be held on Saturday, March 28th at Sugar Land Memorial Park. In addition to a 5K chip-timed race, there will be a one-mile event. A community oriented post-race party will follow the awards presentation, as well as plenty of food, freebies and an area just for the kids. The Kid’s Zone, sponsored by St. Luke’s Sugar Land Hospital, will have games and activities galore.

To celebrate the life of their son Grant, a precious seven-year-old boy who passed away from an unidentified virus the summer before he was to begin second grade, Dolores and Rod Starr founded the Grant-A-Starr Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit organization created solely for the purpose of saving children’s lives through the advancement of rapid detection of life-threatening childhood infections, such as encephalitis and meningitis. It provides financial support to Houston-based research projects that are dedicated to the development of rapid diagnostic testing, which will reduce the time required to identify an illness and ultimately save children’s lives.

What makes the Grant-A-Starr Foundation Fun Run unique is the student steering committee. It is made up of local area high school volunteers who have taken a deep personal interest in the event. This year’s teen board president is Kaitlyn Gascoyne, a senior at Clements High School. “The committee itself has become a family within itself,” Gascoyne explained. “I have really tried to implement team-building activities for the committee this year. We spend a lot of time together, and true friendships have developed with kids who have been part of the race for all of their high school years!”

After six successful years, the student sponsorship committee, led by student chairperson Rachel Wang, is setting even more aggressive sponsorship goals for the 2015 event. “We have been honored with great sponsorship in the past, and now we want to take it to the next level!” said Wang, a sophomore at Clements High School. “Our goal this year is to raise $50,000 for the Foundation. There are many levels of support available, and both businesses and individuals are encouraged to participate. We welcome them all!”

For sponsorship information, please call 281-731-7691. To learn more about the Grant-A-Starr Foundation and register for the race, visit www.grantastarr.org.