TEAM:  Alice In RunnerLand 

(10K Team:  Nate Miller, Clare Miller, Sheryl Hotchkiss)

(Marathon Team: Laurie Miller, Jeff Miller, Mike Hotchkiss, Jared Hotchkiss)

Hello Family and Friends,

We are reaching out for your support to a cause that is very near to our heart:  Health Living + Autism Awareness!  Team Alice In RunnerLand will be running their first ever 10K at Disneyland this coming January, 2023. Our team goals are to train as a team, share our progress in our journey and grow support for Autism by helping to raise money for an amazing organization named Autism Speaks. They are an organization that supports Autism research and early intervention to help families along this life long journey.  

Our team’s adventure began last March when Nate’s parents (Jeff and Laurie Miller) ran the Disney 10K and 10 Miler in the parks of Disneyland.  The kids did not run but they were inspired by the atmosphere and hearing the great stories of seeing the parks at 5am in the morning and having so many Disney characters encouraging you along your path to the finish line.  After returning from this trip to Florida, Nate decided he wanted to challenge himself to accomplish a similar goal as his parents this next year. Both the Miller and Hotchkiss families wanted to support Nate on his journey so collectively all agreed to sign up. Nate, Clare and Sheryl will be running the 10K and Laurie, Jeff, Jared and Mike will be running the full marathon next January.  

There are always obstacles in life that we must overcome in order to reach our ultimate goal.  For us, when it came time to register for this years’ 2023 Marathon Weekend races, we were originally defeated because the 10K race sold out in less than 45 minutes.  While we had an army of people trying to register across multiple iphones, ipads and computers we were not successful in getting all team members into the race.  We were able to get spots for the marathon but the part of the team wanting to run the 10K was shut out.  We were defeated and feeling extremely depressed about the entire situation because Nate, Clare and Sheryl were not going to be a part of the magic during race weekend. 

However, Nate’s mom (Laurie) was determined to find a way for him to run his race. This is when we came across our hero of the story.  Autism Speaks is an autism advocacy charity and the largest autism research organization in the United States. It sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities often aimed at families like ours.  This organization has a limited number of Disney race entries for fundraisers who pledge to raise funds for the organization.   We are inspired by the fact that this organization helps families like ours and our actions of fundraising give us promise to pay it forward to other families living this beautiful journey of raising and loving the gifts of a family member with Autism.  

The reason this organization touches our hearts is because Nate is on the autism spectrum. Autism Speaks mission is to help people with autism reach their full potential and this has been our family motto with Nate since the time he was 2 years old.  This race is part of Nate’s journey and continued maturation to be more than the day before.  This young man has faced more than a fair share of challenges in his life, but always overcomes and continuously grows from them. For him to be this passionate and motivated about an event is something to be treasured and something that inspires the rest of his family. The families have begun their training and are getting better on the track, on the tread and on the road while we are adding training miles by the week. 

We invite you to join in encouragement and support of

Alice In RunnerLand + Autism Speaks.  Any donations will be greatly appreciated as we challenge ourselves to

meet our team goal of $1,500.  Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love you share with our family!