Garden Of Life 5K Race Held Last Weekend

There was plenty of fun, lots of sun and a total of 1160 people that finished the Garden of Life’s second annual 5k Sun Run Challenge Saturday morning to promote health and to support and raise funds for Special Olympics of Palm Beach County.

The second annual Garden of Life run took place at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens and was hosted by the President of Garden of Life, Brian Ray. Ray was joined by the Director of Special Olympics of Palm Beach-Rich Fleming, 160 employees from Garden of Life and over 30 volunteers and staff members from Special Olympics of Palm Beach to show how a community can come together to support others.

Race participants ranged in ages and consisted of athletes from Special Olympics of Palm Beach, coaches, volunteers, employees, friends, family and people from the community. However, the family event not only attracted runners from just Palm Beach County, but brought in supporters from across the country.

Race participants and donators raised $10,000 more than last year with totaling a $30,000 written check for Special Olympics of Palm Beach County.

“We’re very grateful to the Garden of Life team for putting this event on,” stated Fleming. “And most of all I want to thank all these runners that came out to support our athletes here today. It’s unbelievable where this money will go and what it will do. This means a lot to our athletes.”

Special Olympics of Palm Beach County provides year-round sports training and competition in a variety of sports for people that have intellectual disabilities. Making it their mission to give them opportunities to demonstrate courage, develop fitness and to experience the feeling of joy as they share the gifts they have learned with their friends and families.

The Garden of Life run is a way to promote healthy living, such as physical fitness. Supporting Special Olympics of Palm Beach County was just one of their ways in helping the community and making sure everyone has a chance to live a healthy life.

“There are two reasons we do a 5K for the Garden of Life,” said Ray. “The first is to support Palm Beach County. We were founded in 2000 in Palm Beach Gardens… we are [the] number one nutrition brand across the United States and all of our employees pretty much come from Palm Beach County. The second reason and the more important reason is to raise money for Special Olympics. It is a wonderful organization and Palm Beach County probably has the best county in the entire United States of running a Special Olympics organization.”

With Garden of Life being one of the leading companies that sell organic, non-GMO and RAW whole food supplements, Ray said this event was the perfect way to give back to the community.

“We want people to know that Garden of Life was founded 16 years ago in Palm Beach Gardens,” stated Ray. “We wanted to do this fun, family event for the community to let people know that our mission is to empower extraordinary health here in our hometown, as well as the rest of the world.”

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