For Amanda Wolf, Saturday was a day of accomplishments.
She completed her first half-marathon (13.1 miles).
She also became the first person to finish a Team World Vision race using a hand bicycle.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryAnd she was the top fundraiser of the 22-member team based at The Point in Seymour, bringing in $15,000.
As of Monday morning, the team had raised $53,096. Fundraising continues until the end of the month.
Proceeds benefit World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to help solve the puzzle of poverty, providing things like clean water, nutritious food, education, medical care, economic opportunity and spiritual development, according to worldvision.org.
It’s the largest nongovernmental provider of clean water in the world and in the last three years has reached more than 12.7 million people with clean water.
Every $50 goes to help build and support the infrastructure that will help provide clean water to one person for the rest of their life. The people can have better health and improved nutrition and go to school instead of spending the day fetching water. In the developing world, the average person walks about 4 miles for clean water.
Teams around the United States help by running and fundraising for clean water so those people don’t have to walk. Donning orange and white jerseys, participants are easy to spot at the events.
The Point team was supposed to compete Saturday in the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they completed the race in Seymour.
During a Thursday night rally, a man named Peter spoke to the group and said where he grew up in Uganda, his brother died due to dirty water, and his sister was once attacked while walking to get water.
“So that’s the reason,” Wolf said of why she chose to race. “I can’t imagine not having clean water.”
She also was inspired by teammate Chrissy Hubers, who ran 56 miles in Seymour for Team World Vision.
“I said, ‘Well, if she can do 56, I can probably do 13.1,’” Wolf said. “Then Annie Ferret asked me the question ‘Would you want to if you had the capability?’ and that got my brain thinking like, ‘Oh, maybe that would be really cool to do.’”
Wolf borrowed a hand bicycle from a family friend and started the 18 weeks of training with her team. They gathered on Saturdays for a run while she adapted to using the hand bicycle.
For most of Saturday’s race, Ferret and Libby Earley ran alongside Wolf. Crossing the finish line with them was a surreal moment, Wolf said.
Wolf also had the support of her father, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, who all traveled from her home state of Ohio to watch her race.
Wolf said she used a hand bicycle when she was younger, but she never competed in a race. She was born with sacral agenesis, a rare condition in which the sacrum (the lowest portion of the spine that forms the joint with the hips) fails to form during fetal development.
She, however, has never let that keep her from doing what she wants to do.
“Growing up, that’s just how my parents raised us,” Wolf said. “They had no boundaries for me. Doctors said that I would never walk, crawl or stand, and so we just kept beating those odds.”
During the opening rally to kick off The Point’s fifth year of fundraising for Team World Vision, Amy Claire Patterson challenged the group to think big.
Wolf’s goal went from $2,000 to $10,000, but she didn’t think that would be possible.
“I sent out around 120 postcards that had a picture of me and why I was doing it and what I was doing,” she said. “A week or two after I had sent those out, no donations were coming in, and I was like, ‘Well, that was a bust. This isn’t going to work.’”
In a matter of 18 weeks, though, she hit $15,000.
“Right when I was getting discouraged again, God showed up, and the large donations were coming in,” Wolf said. “I was just blown away so many people would come behind me and sponsor me and understand the cause.”
On Saturday morning, Wolf was one of 12 people completing a half-marathon, and Susan Jablonski was the only one to tackle a marathon (26.2 miles).
Jablonski, a mother of eight, is second on the team in fundraising with $10,000. Saturday was her first marathon.
“I decided last year I wanted to run a marathon, but after an injury early this year and COVID cancelling so many races, I didn’t think that would be a reality any time soon,” she said.
Seeing Hubers’ passion during her run in June and being a part of that day encouraged Jablonski to step out and join the team.
“I wanted to add more meaning to my running miles, and raising money for clean water was just the inspiration I needed,” she said.
She initially signed up for the half-marathon, fearing another injury, but early on started adding more miles and decided to try for the full.
“The 18 weeks of training prepared me incredibly well for the race,” Jablonski said. “The group runs each week were motivating and kept me accountable to put in the miles. I also have a great group of friends I run early morning miles with. My husband and kids helped me get my miles in for training, as well. I could not have done it without my team.”
Finishing the race was a very exciting experience, she said.
“Running down Stadium Drive with my family, friends and other spectathletes cheering me on was a great feeling,” she said.
Raising the funds became increasingly important to her as she learned more about the global water crisis.
“I think it most impacted me to think about my own eight children and how I would feel if they had to travel many miles each day to collect dirty water, likely in harsh and unsafe conditions,” Jablonski said. “My heart broke for these kids and their mothers. That was such a motivation to keep moving, both (Saturday) and during the training season.”
She was happy to help the team surpass its fundraising goal of $40,000.
“During these trying times in our world, it was amazing to see how God provided so many to step up and give sacrificially for this cause,” Jablonski said. “I have truly been blessed by this experience.”
Gracie Lewis also accomplished a first Saturday — completing a half-marathon.
“I ran in high school, and then I haven’t run since then,” she said. “Then when quarantine hit and everything shut down (in the spring), I randomly bought a pair of running shoes and was going to start running again. Then we went to church a couple weeks later and World Vision was there, and I signed up before I left.”
She started with time-based runs to build up endurance, and then about halfway through, she switched to mileage.
Going into Saturday’s race, Lewis said she was excited and terrified.
“My training stopped at 10 miles, so coming in knowing I had to run an extra 5K was intimidating,” she said.
While she was disappointed about the Indianapolis race being canceled, she was happy to see a good turnout of supporters Saturday in Seymour.
“I was banking on the adrenaline in Indianapolis, but they did a great job putting it on here and making sure we still felt that,” Lewis said.
Michael Powell sent her a text message Friday night asking if he could run with her as a pacer, and she said that helped her.
“It was very emotional the last mile, especially coming in on the turn and you see everybody and just thinking about why we did this,” Lewis said. “I think especially right now with everything going on in the country and around the world, it was nice the last four months to have something else to work for, kind of a distraction. It feels good to do something good.”
Brian Terrell was the team captain again this year, and he completed the race for the third time.
He normally does the marathon, but he had to switch to the half-marathon due to being injured for six months.
“This is my first race of the year,” he said. “I’m pretty happy to still be able to be healthy and be able to finish.”
Terrell was proud of his teammates for completing the race and setting a fundraising record.
“We had a good group that came together every week,” he said of training. “There wasn’t as many as in the past, but we had a really good core that was here every week.”
The cause remains close to Terrell’s heart.
“It’s one of those things, it just gives you chills because you know you can make a difference,” he said. “If we can continue what we’re doing, we can end the water crisis. They are on track to end it within a 10-year time period. We can escalate and move on to other things.”
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Meet The Point’s Team World Vision
Completed Saturday’s marathon: Susan Jablonski
Completed Saturday’s half-marathon: Haley Anderson, Cheryl Bauman, Marnie Dirks, Libby Earley, Annie Ferret, Cortney Hillian, Gracie Lewis, Diana Nolan, Kelli Robinson, Natalie Smith, Brian Terrell and Amanda Wolf
Others fundraising: Natalie Croquart, Skylar Earley, Nikki Eldridge, Tim Ferret, Chrissy Hubers, Julie McFall, Stephanie Montana, Carley Sanders and Jason Sanders
To make a donation to the team’s effort, visit teamworldvision.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=12747.
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