Runners participating in Marine Corps Marathon running for the Children's Inn charity
WASHINGTON (WJLA) — Some of the more than 30,000 runners participating in Sunday's Marine Corps Marathon will be running for one of dozens of charities.
This year, for the first time, The Children's Inn in Bethesda is one of those charities.
The Children's Inn is located on the campus of the National Institute of Health. It provides a place to stay for children receiving treatment at NIH and their families.
"They call it a place like home, she calls it a place better than home," said Pam Bureau of The Villages, Florida, whose granddaughter often stays at the Children's Inn while receiving treatment for a rare disease.
"She doesn't care how many needles she has, how many procedures, as long as she knows at the end of the day she comes back here," Bureau said.
Bureau is running a 10K portion of the race to help raise money for The Children's Inn.
The Inn's CEO Jennie Lucca announced at a dinner Friday night that more than $55,000 had been raised.
Lucca says although The Children's Inn is on federal property at NIH, it is entirely funded by private donations, so the money is a very big deal for the non-profit.