Going to great lengths to raise money for autism awareness

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

Throughout Autism Awareness Month, staff and tenants of Carmel Gateway, 550 E. 96th St., have been raising funds for the annual Eagles Autism Challenge. As the month draws to a close, there are still ways for you to get involved and help raise money for a worthy cause.

The Reporter spoke to Carmel Gateway Community Manager Kennedy Gallagher about this year’s Eagles Autism Challenge and about the great lengths one person went to in his fundraising efforts.

Gallagher

“It’s an annual event that the Philadelphia Eagles put on,” Gallagher said. “It could be a 5K run or bike event, and they do it every year. I think it’s been since 2018 they’ve done it. Our [Rubenstein Partners] corporate headquarters are based there, so they’ve aligned with the Eagles Foundation to do it every year. It’s kind of our annual way to build community within our company, aligning with a common goal to help people out nationwide.”

According to Gallagher, people at Carmel Gateway and all the other Rubenstein Partners locations are individually raising money, which will be combined into a single lump-sum donation going to autism awareness efforts.

Last year, Senior Property Manager Patrick Moyers not only raised money for Eagles Autism Challenge, but he also went to Philadelphia to run in the 5K. Part of his fundraising efforts involved personal sacrifice and a donation to a second charitable organization.

“We all helped in fundraising, but he represented us as a team going out there to run the 5K,” Gallagher told The Reporter. “Last year, we actually centered our fundraiser around him. He offered to donate and cut his hair – he had pretty long hair at the time – if we reached our fundraising goal of $10,000. When we had reached that last year, he donated his hair before the event, which was very cool.”

Moyers donated his hair to Wigs for Kids, a non-profit organization that gives free wigs to children and young adults who face hair loss from cancer treatments and other reasons. You can learn more at WigsForKids.org.

This year, the Eagles Autism Challenge 5K is May 17, and Carmel Gateway’s fundraising efforts will continue until then. You can learn about the fundraiser at EaglesAutismChallenge.org, and you can see how you contribute to the local efforts at fundraisers.EaglesAutismFoundation.org/PARC.

“I think it is important to connect our community not only on a local basis, but nationwide,” Gallagher said. “As a community manager, this is my little blip in the way that I get to do that in connecting our little community here in Carmel to a bigger organization across the nation. The Eagles Autism Challenge and the Eagles Autism Foundation – all their fundraising goes to a lot of nationwide organizations like the Special Olympics and things like that. I just think it’s important to get people outside of the Carmel bubble a little bit.”