There are a lots of weird fundraisers out there, like selling mattresses in high school cafeterias and auctioning off dates with celebrities. I'm a big supporter of any way that people can raise money for a good cause, but when I heard of the Cupid's Undie Run in Washington, D.C. I wasn't so sure anymore.
Going for a mile and a half run around Capitol Hill in below freezing temperatures in February didn't sound like my idea of a good time, especially in years when there is snow on the ground and blistering cold wind. Would you really want to run in the cold wearing barely anything, even if it's in support of a children's charity?
It was started in 2010 as a way to raise money for the Children's Tumor Foundation by Bobby Gill and Brendan Hanrahan, whose childhood friend's brother suffered from neurofibromatosis. The rare genetic disease causes noncancerous tumors to grow on the body's nerves and affects 100,000 Americans, many of them children.
In its first year, they raised only 8,000 but last year they went above $50,000 and this year they have already raised over $100,000 and donations are still rolling in. With more cities starting all over the country, there are more opportunities to raise money for this good cause.
It sounds like a pretty interesting way to support a charity but while I've done other crazy runs in the past, like the Emerald Nuts New Year's Midnight Run in Central Park, I'm not sure that stripping down to my underwear and running in the cold is something I'd want to do. Still, it is for a worthy cause.
Do you think stripping down to your underwear and running in the cold for a children's foundation is something you could do?
Image via M.V. Jantzen/flickr
