March marathon and an April dog walk?

I have a marathon coming up this month. My first one ever! I'm so excited to push myself to cover this distance (26.2 miles) and had hoped to raise money as part of this process. In the past, I've raised money for Honor Flight Network, which sends World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see (their) war memorials.

At the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2009,
when I raised money to send one veteran on the trip.

For this race, I tried contacting the North Carolina Honor Flight chapter because I wanted to donate closer to home. Unfortunately, I did not receive an answer, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was actually talked about in the news and most likely got bombarded with calls/e-mails. Between work, my new puppy, training for the marathon and everyday life, I didn't really have time to continue trying to contacting them, so I kind of let fundraising go.


However, I now have a friend who is participating in the SPCA K9-3K Dog Walk that's happening in Raleigh in April. The money raised goes to support new no-kill animal shelters in Wake County. I'd like to join and walk it with my pup and maybe also throw it together with my marathon? I'm still thinking about it.


I also just saw this article about a puppy in Oklahoma who was euthanized and then found days later still alive. It wrenched my stomach to read that he was thrown away in a trash can. I'm so happy I could save my puppy from the shelter, and it was great seeing her and her litter all get adopted, but the reality is there are so many animals out there who aren't so lucky. Fortunately for Wall-E (that's what they named the puppy that was found), he now has hundreds of families looking to adopt him.

My sleeping girl with the teddy bear she has since destroyed.