By Corrine Garcia and Abbie Digel
When Big Sky resident Marne Hayes tossed her
name into the lottery to run the New York City
Marathon, she was pretty certain, and almost hopeful,
that she wouldn’t make the cut.
She had never run a marathon before, and decided
to enter her name on a whim. Also applying was her
husband Erin Hayes already had a couple of marathons
under his belt.
Marne’s name was drawn from approximately
150,000 applicants, so Erin, determined to run,
signed himself and Marne up for Fred’s Team, the
largest and oldest charity of the NYC Marathon,
which supports cancer research at Memorial Sloan-
Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Last year,
Fred’s team raised over $40 million for Sloan-Kettering.
Fred’s Team is named after Fred Lebow, the original
founder of the New York City Marathon. He was diagnosed
with brain cancer and treated at Sloan-Kettering.
He came back from treatment deeply affected
by the children being treated there and decided to
start the first official charity of the New York City
Marathon on behalf of Sloan-Kettering.
Fred died of cancer in 1994, but his legacy lives on
with runners who wear the recognizable orange
shirts bearing the slogan “Imagine a World Without
Cancer.” In New York
the Hayes’s will run with 250
members of Fred’s Team from
all over the country.
This cause, Erin says, hits close
to home. Both he and Marne
have relatives and friends
who’ve been affected by the
disease.
Erin set his fundraising goal to
$5,000, but has since surpassed
it and raised the bar to $6000.
This fundraising experience
made him feel “overwhelmed
with the amount of support the
Big Sky and Bozeman community
has offered, and the stories
donors have shared.” He’s
learned about many locals who have fought with
cancer, without other members of the community
being made aware.
The charity allows the athletes invovled to pick a
specific type of cancer they want to support. Erin
chose to devote his funds to children’s leukemia research,
which falls under Sloan-Kettering’s umbrella
– the center funds clinical research and treatment
of over 400 types of cancer.
The need to give back “hits people at different
times in their lives,” Erin said. Now is his time, he
said, and it’s benefitted him mentally, spiritually
and physically. He’s enjoyed helping a charity he
believes in while pursuing athletic endeavors.
Help Erin and Marne Hayes reach their goal by
contacting him at erin@bigskybuild.com or visit
fredsteam.org and enter his name in the participant
box.
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