Rye Runners Kick Off Fundraiser For God's Love We Deliver

RYE, NY — A group of Rye Country Day School Track and Field Team members is working to give back during the outbreak of the new coronavirus thanks to a newfound influx of free time caused by school closures and stay-at-home orders.

The crux of the fundraiser is a GoFundMe campaign started by Yuto Abe, a sophomore from Scarsdale, and his teammates: Hudson Friedman from Greenwich, Ellie Stevens from Rye, Diego Morales from Greenwich, Peter Nicholas from Mamaroneck, and Jack Merrill from Old Greenwich.

The fundraiser, titled "Wildcats Paving the Way!" is raising money to donate to God’s Love We Deliver, an organization that provides meals for people unable to feed themselves due to serious illnesses like HIV/AIDS, cancer and other illnesses.

According to a statement from God's Love, the organization delivers around 11,000 meals to clients in Westchester each year. It also provides nutrition education and counseling for those living with illnesses.

On GoFundMe, Wildcats Paving the Way campaign organizers wrote God's Love clients are the most at-risk for COVID-19

As of Thursday, the campaign had raised $3,450 of its $5,000 goal, enough to pay for 275 meals.

The campaign recently announced it is hosting a Wild Run on Sunday in an increased fundraising effort. Donors supporting the Wild Run can choose to sponsor a runner and pledge to donate a certain amount per mile the runner completes.

The goal of the run is for each runner to complete one mile every hour for 24 hours.

Donors can sponsor runners at the Wildcat Society website.

Editor's note: the Wild Run was moved from Saturday to Sunday because of rain in the forecast.