JAIMIE FRANKLIN
News Assistant
Graziadio Business students will host the fourth annual Running the Malibu Waves fundraiser Saturday at Zuma Beach to raise money for the Special Olympics and the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation.
The event will include a 5-kilometer run along Zuma Beach and a one-mile Kid’s Fun Run for children 12 and younger.
When the event was first sponsored in 2005, about 50 people participated. Over the past three years, however, the event has grown to include more than 350 participants, raising nearly $10,000.
The participants are comprised mostly of Pepperdine students, and also include local families and donors from the Malibu community.
After each of the running events are completed, an awards ceremony will announce the top finishers, and awards will be given to each child participant.
Pepperdine Challenge for Charity president Maria Gascon said that, despite the amount of work necessary to organize the event, she looks forward to seeing the children have fun.
“What I’m looking forward to most is the Kid’s Fun Run,” Gascon said. “Really all of our work is for them and in the end it’s pretty satisfying.”
All proceeds from the event will go toward the Special Olympics, as well as the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation (CLF), which is a family-operated nonprofit organization centered in Santa Monica.
CLF seeks to mentor at-risk, low-income youth in the L.A. area and help them develop self-sufficiency, confidence and leadership skills. The organization has also placed three homeless families into new homes this year.
The event is being organized by the Pepperdine chapter of Challenge for Charity, a non-profit organization centered at Stanford University that draws upon the resources of nine West Coast business schools, including Berkeley, USC, UCLA and the University of Washington.
Challenge for Charity seeks to raise funds throughout each school year to benefit the Special Olympics and other family-related local charities to “develop business leaders with a lifelong commitment to community involvement and social responsibility,” according to the organization’s Web site.
Each of the schools compete during the year to raise the most funds for their charities of choice. The competition comes to an end each April during an intramural sports event and awards ceremony at Stanford.
Schools are judged based on overall student involvement, volunteer hours and dollars raised. Pepperdine’s Graziadio School boasts 100 percent student membership.
While not every student is actively involved in the organization, most participate in fundraising charity events throughout the year, in addition to dedicated students who spend almost every weekend raising funds and working for charity in local communities.
Students are encouraged to participate in the event by registering online at pepperdinec4c.org or at Zuma Beach on Saturday beginning at 6 a.m. Pre-registration is $25 and registration at the event is $35. Children cost $15.
For more information, contact Colleen Higdon at colleen.higdon@pepperdine.edu.
03-27-2008
