Proceeds from Laurel Run are directed to TRC Foundation, Inc. Specifically, money raised through Laurel Run is used in the following ways:
- To support disability awareness, prevention and early intervention efforts. These initiatives are critically important, because 50 percent of disabilities are preventable. And, for children with disabilities, addressing those issues at an early age gives those children the best chance for a successful life.
- To enhance employment and work training opportunities for adults with disabilities like Laurel, so that they may become productive, contributing members of society and experience the feelings of pride and satisfaction that come from earning real wages for performing meaningful work. The Resource Center directly provides jobs to 500 individuals with disabling conditions in Western New York, and the agency supports another 300 people with disabilities in finding and maintaining jobs at local businesses.
- To enable individuals with disabilities to participate in “Laurel’s Lap”. For Laurel, her friends at TRC’s Dunkirk Work Centers and hundreds of other individuals who receive supports from TRC, Laurel Run is their event – they take a lot of pride in ownership and are eager to be involved in whatever way they can: making signs to cheer on participants in the Relay Run, volunteering at the registration table or at a water stop, participating in the 5-kilometer walk, handing out the race awards, or simply attending the day’s festivities. For dozens of people, the highlight of Laurel Run is being able to participate in “Laurel’s Lap”, in which anyone with a disability is invited to take a lap around the track that surrounds the ball field in Silver Creek. Your donation to Laurel Run will help ensure that everyone who participates in Laurel’s Lap will receive a T-shirt and a goody bag. The T-shirts are truly a treasured item, as on any given day throughout the rest of the year, you are virtually guaranteed to find someone at TRC who is wearing a Laurel Run shirt.
