MBF hitting the road

Fresh off the Boston Marathon, Matt Brown and the Matt Brown Foundation (MBF) are hosting a local 5K fundraiser around the Norwood High School on June 7.

Brown said he wanted to meet people where they were; he believes there are a lot of folks who want to help the foundation’s mission, but can’t run a whole marathon.

“The Boston Marathon and our team gets a lot of support, people are interested, but 26.2 miles isn’t for everyone and going towards the Falmouth Road Race, that’s a seven-mile run and maybe not everybody can do a seven-mile run,” he said. “We also had only a limited number of bibs, but our own 5K, you can walk it, you can run it, and we’ve some folks sign up for the walk with strollers for their kids.”

Brown said he wanted to emphasize that anybody with mobility issues is also invited to attend.

“You can cycle it in your regular chair or if you have a racing chair, and it’s just about bringing the community together for an event hopefully that people are excited for,” he said. “As we kick off this new tradition together, we hope that we see as many people as possible.”

Brown said he was surprised as how much work goes into a 5K when he first started organizing it. He said while the Boston Marathon was a lot to prepare for, the MBF wasn’t putting the whole thing together like it is for this.

“We haven’t done this before and I quickly learned that there is a lot more to setting up a 5K event than setting up some cones and yelling, ‘GO!’” he said with a laugh. “The learning process has been great, and I’ve been able to lean on those in the 5K world, especially some of the folks who organize the Austin Reardon 5K. They’ve been great to bounce questions off of and learn the ropes of what goes into it.”

Brown said they’re already up to 120 signups.

“We owe a big thank you to the Boston Bruins Foundation for coming in as our presenting sponsor; College Hype, who does our apparel, is our bib sponsor; and we’ve been able to get a few mile-marker sponsors as well,” he said. “We’re on the hunt for some more of those.”

Brown said the funds raised will go towards the MBF’s mission, which is to provide those fighting paralysis with mobility equipment, from chairs to bathroom aparatuses to wheelchair vehicles. He said there is a huge need.

“We have more applications coming in all the time for those battling paralysis and are looking for pieces of equipment for the house or bathroom renovations,” he said. “We try to make this 5K the success that it can be, so we can turn around and help those individuals. Our goal is to make someone’s tomorrow a little bit easier and a little bit better than today.”

Brown said for the Boston Marathon, he, his runner Lucas Carr, and the other runners at the marathon were able to raise quite a bit for the foundation this year.

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“I owe such a big thanks and so much gratitude to our runners; the Marathon is run on the third Monday in April, but the training and the fundraising starts in November and December,” he said. “It’s a lot. It’s a lot of sacrifice personally for the individual to stick to their training regimen and run the miles leading up to the race, and our team of runners and our incredible sponsors brought in over $130,000 just on the marathon alone.”

Brown also said this is a way to get involved in the Town.

“We owe everything to the Town of Norwood,” he said. “It’s been really great, but now even the surrounding regions are starting to get behind us.”

Brown said he wanted to thank both his current sponsors for the 5K, the Boston Bruins Foundation, College Hype, Healthwise at Home, Plain Silver Laundry, Permobil, and the Austin Reardon Memorial Scholarship Foundation and his sponsors for the Marathon. His Marathon sponsors were College Hype, Carroll Advertising, Kaloutas & Co, Lewis' Restaurant and Grille, and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity Brothers of Colby College.

For more information, go to https://www.mattbrownfoundation.org