“My goal when I started researching charities to fundraise for was to find an organisation that involved helping people with special needs and a smaller organisation because I know how times have been especially hard since Covid. I looked up a number of charities that were listed and when I looked up your website, I knew almost immediately that it was the one that I wanted to raise money for.

I watched the video that was on your website and I can tell how much of an impact that the Peter Pan Centre has on these children and it warms my heart. The services that you provide remind me very much of the special needs room that I worked in at my high school and I want to support you guys as much as I can.

When I was in high school, I started volunteering in the room for special needs kids and it changed my life. They were the most loving, enthusiastic, and beautiful people and I looked forward to every second I spent with them. I helped my high school start a basketball team called ‘Unified Basketball’ and the team consisted of half special needs kids and half volunteers. One girl with Down’s syndrome who was hesitant to join would sit on the side-lines and we would bring her up to the bench to socialize with everyone and be more involved. She ended up becoming our first cheerleader and loved every second of it.

At the end of the season, we had an awards night and at the end of the ceremony, this girl came up to me with flowers and the picture of the two of us together and said, “thank you for being my best friend in the whole world”. That one moment made me realize how much of an impact that I and every other volunteer/teacher/friend had on them and how much of an impact that these kids had on us. When I graduated my high school in Maine and moved to Massachusetts to join the Air Force and go to college, I was devastated to leave them. But whenever I returned to visit family, I would try to visit them as much as possible. Because I don’t get to go back often, I try to volunteer for the Special Olympics whenever there are events near my job.

I decided to run the Virtual London Marathon 2021 because I visited London during my senior year of high school during the time of the London Marathon and knew I wanted to run it someday. Since then, I have run two marathons in my hometown in Maine and the Marine Corps Marathon once in Washington D.C. I didn’t make the international ballot for the in-person marathon, but I plan on still running it in England as long as Covid gets better since I had a trip planned for Europe previously (haven’t decided my route in England yet!)

Thank you for all that you do!

Stephanie, Virtual London Marathon 2021 fundraiser.