A huge part of what keeps St. Jude Children’s Hospital going is the efforts of people like Jess Wright. Several years ago Jess committed to walking a local 5K in her hometown of Frederick, Maryland which benefited St. Jude. At the time she wanted to encourage people who never thought they could do an endurance race to join her and walk rather than run and most importantly she wanted to raise funds for St. Jude. What better way to do this than to start her own team? A few years later when St. Jude became a beneficiary of the Nashville marathon, with a little encouragement from her friends at St. Jude, Jess brought her team to Nashville and began participating in the Annual St. Jude Rock ’N Rock Nashville Marathon.
“I was a believer in St. Jude long before I ever got the chance to see it in person,” said Jess Wright. “After that I knew I’d be supporting the work there forever. And then, in 2012, my friend lost her little girl Sophie to a brain tumor, two weeks to the day before her 9th birthday. Sophie is now my motivation and my inspiration for raising money, for encouraging other people to join me, and for walking 13.1 miles every year.”
In the past five year’s Jess’ team, Team S.N.A.R.K.Y, has raised over $200,000 for St. Jude. This year they have raised over $32,000 with Jess raising $10,000 of this. Saturday they’ll be at it again with their fifteen team members waking 13.1 miles for St. Jude.
“St Jude Children’s Research Hospital has always been my charity of choice, because they work to give hope to families like Jenee’s, and they are tirelessly working to find cures for children like Sophie. At St Jude, no family pays for ANYTHING — treatment, travel, lodging, food — ANYTHING. After Sophie’s death, I became even more determined to make a difference and help St Jude continue their lifesaving work.”
In honor of her work raising funds and awareness for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital Jess was recently named a Darrell Waltrip Automotive Group Hometown Hero.
“Once again, I’m taking Team S.N.A.R.K.Y. to Nashville to walk a half marathon on April 30, 2016 to raise money for St Jude,” shared Jess. “I’ll be walking in Sophie’s memory, and also in honor of the healthy children I know. As Danny Thomas said, no child should die in the dawn of life, and I’m going to do everything I can to help reach the goal of saving EVERY child.”
As a part of Jess’ hero award Darrell Waltrip Automotive Group made a $500 donation to St. Jude.
This year marks the fifth year that St. Jude Chidlren’s Research Hospital is the official benefiting charity partner of the St. Jude Rock ’N Roll Nashville marathon. Considered one of the largest running events in the state of Tennessee, the marathon event drew 30,000 runners from all 50 states and 26 countries and impacted area economy by nearly $40 million last year.
To learn more about Jess, Team S.N.A.R.K.Y. and St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital,see the video below.
Darrell Waltrip Automotive Group’s Hometown Heroes is a monthly event celebrating heroes in the Middle Tennessee area. To nominate your hero or to learn more about the event visit Darrell Waltrip Hometown Heroes.
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