Race for Freedom Campaign
During the time period of 45 days, I managed a fundraising campaign called Race for Freedom to benefit Operation Underground Railroad. During this time, we were able to raise $20,025!
This is a video I created to promote our cause:
In July, my dad (Terry Szymanski) and I were sitting in the Life Leadership Convention in Des Moines, Iowa when we heard Tim Ballard, CEO of Operation Underground Railroad speak about sex trafficking.
We knew we were going to do something, but we had not decided exactly what.
And then, I thought of something.
I remembered the Life Major Convention back in July, and I remembered how Life was going to be sponsoring a push-up contest for Operation Underground Railroad. I decided I would run my first campaign to benefit this charity. My dad came up with the marathon bit. Last year, Terry had run the Twin Cities Marathon with Jeffrey Moulton. Terry was not planning on running again this year, but he decided to do it anyway to benefit this charity – instead of doing push-ups (because he hates push-ups). He told me that he would run the marathon, and I could manage the campaign.
Sounded fair enough.
So, ever since then, we’ve launched a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account. But mostly, we’ve been promoting via word of mouth. One of our good friends even offered to be a match donor and double every donation up to $10,000! He says this is the first cause that really stirred his heart in this powerful of a way, and he felt called to make a difference in a big way.
I’ve learned a lot more about the world of sex trafficking, and the more I learn about it, the more I was determined to raise our goal of $10,000. God calls us to take care of the least of these, and even more so, the children. I keep remembering the story about Jesus talking to the little children, and remembering how much He loves them. It makes me sick to think of how people are hurting God’s innocent children.
On October 14th, 2017, Terry Szymanski did 26.2 push ups in the Life On Life push up contest to symbolize every mile run in the marathon.
I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of being able to watch Terry receive the award for Most Money Raised and be recognized as one of the Overall Winners. This was so much more than just a campaign to me…It was knowing that children’s lives would be changed for the better. It was knowing that we had made such big difference.
I wrote a blog post for Life Leadership that was featured on their blog! You can read it here: Life Leadership Blog – Marathon Runner Raises Over $20,000!
In the end, we raised $20,025, and Life Leadership has raised a little over $800,000 in total so far!
