DETAILS

When
Saturday, April 27, 2024
7:00 am (5K Registration) to 11:30 am (Farewell)

Who
Patients, family members, friends, and advocates, sign up, tell your story, create a team, and set a goal to support AAMDSIF! Any and all Californians are welcome to join us for the day as well!
Doctors, Nurses, Research Fellows – make this a fun, competitive run or walk with your colleagues. Most spirited or largest team gets a prize!!! Running time is optional.

Where
Together! At Shoreline Village, 429 Shoreline Village Drive, Long Beach CA 90802. If you can’t join us in Long Beach, run or walk through your neighborhood wherever you live, on your treadmill, around your local Mall, or… donate and sleep in! 

What
We can’t say it often enough! Our mission is to raise awareness about rare bone marrow failure diseases and funds to support the patient & family services provided by AAMDSIF and research for better treatments and CURES!

Post your photos and selfies at https://www.facebook.com/marchformarrowla! You can help us make this historic March for Marrow California a huge success!

Schedule
7:00 am - 5K Registration & Packet Pick-Up
8:00 am - 5K Run START
8:15-9:00 am - Walk Registration & T-shirt Pick-Up
9:00 am - 5K Awards
9:00 am - Auction Opens
9:30 am - Moment of Remembrance, 2024 Champion, Matt Simunac
9:45 am - Group Photo & Walk START
10:00 am-11:00 am - Team Cheers & Photos; Recognition of Sponsors,
Teams, & Volunteers, Memory Board, Face Painting & Children’s Activities
11:00 am - Silent Auction Closes
11:30 am - Close & Invitation to M4M LA 2024 Saturday, April 26, 2025

Registration Options
Adult Walker or Runner (Age 21 and older): $35 each
Student Walker or Runner (14 to 21 enrolled in high school or college): $20 each
Youth Walker or Runner (6 to 13): $15 each
Children 5 and under: Free - donations accepted

Team Pricing Available 
Adult Running Teams of 5 or more; $30 each; Coach or Team Organizer download the form for Adult Team Registration and contact the Race Director

Students Running Teams of 5 or more; $15 each; Coach or Team Organizer download the form for Student Team Registration and contact the Race Director.

Youth Running Teams of 5 or more, $12 each; Coach or Team Organizer download the form for Youth Team Registration and contact the Race Director.

All Student or Youth Walking Teams of 5 or more, $10 each;  Coach or Team Organizer download form for Student or Youth Team Registration and contact the Race Director.

Packet Pick-upPacket and Bib Pick-Up is scheduled for Thursday, April 25th, Noon to 4:30 pm, at Runners High, 4101 McGowen St Ste 145, Long Beach CA 90808. Everything will be available at Registration, Saturday, April 27th.

"This run is perfect for new and seasoned runners.  When I can, I run it in memory of my brother, Garrett."

Mia Hamm, US Women's National Soccer Team, 1987-2004

2024 WALK CHAMPION: Luka Simunac
The weekend of his 13^th birthday, Luka played in a big soccer tournament. He felt winded and tired, but we wrote it all off to the SoCal heat. However, when he woke up panicked two days later to see tiny, red dots all over his legs, we knew something was terribly wrong. After rushing to ER that morning, Luka was admitted with alarmingly low blood counts. Days turned into weeks and then months in the hospital as Luka’s Severe Aplastic Anemia worsened. His body was ravaged with daily fevers, endless blood and platelet transfusions, infections, adverse reactions to medications and too many close calls in the PICU. It soon became apparent that he would require a Bone Marrow Transplant and, on the August 26, 2022, Luka received his new marrow from an unrelated donor. After 122 days spent in the hospital and in isolation due to his compromised immunity, he was discharged to a deafening roar of nurses, doctors, family, and friends.       

Although there were many bumps in the road since then, today, Luka is a thriving ninth grader. He is a young entrepreneur who put up a hot chocolate stand at Christmas time, baked and sold dog-treats, was a finalist in 2023 Financial Advisors Contest at Federal Reserve Bank, and was awarded his high school’s first-ever Freshmen Student of the Month. He continues to be monitored by the hematology team, but we are very optimistic for his future and look forward to seeing him blossom.

2024 GUEST MEDIA CELEBRITY: Dr. Marissa Pei
Dr. Marissa is the Celebrity Host of the award-winning iHeartRadio syndicated show/podcast on NBC News Radio KCAA AM/FM #1 Morning Show called "Take My Advice, Im Not Using It: Get Balanced with Dr. Marissa" an Organizational Psychologist, Inspirational Speaker, Network TV Commentator on topics of Grief Hope and Happiness, and the #1 Bestselling Author of 8 Ways to Happiness from Wherever You Are.  Introduced to Oprah 'the Asian Oprah' Dr. Marissa is on a Happy88 Mission...88 million more happy people in the next 18 years! 

2024 GUEST ARTIST: Rev. Fredia Travis
Rev. Fredia Christian Travis is the youngest of nine children who were raised and educated in South Central Los Angeles. She has a twin sister and is a daughter, a wife, a mother and woman of great faith, a faith that has supported her through a series of challenges in her life.  In October of 1982, she married Mr. Hiram J. Travis, and after seven years had her first miracle child, Breanna Victoria and three years later a second, Bianca Monique. Fredia and her husband gained a third daughter as Godparents, Kionna Ivey Ross.

In 1995, Fredia felt called to preach the gospel by ministering in convalescent homes and hospitals to the sick and shut in. Today she works with the youth, teaches baptismal training, Sunday school, and continues to co-teach the women’s Wednesday night Bible Study Class. Fredia also works preparing food and service to the homeless as well as working at the foodbank at her home church. Fredia was licensed to preach in 2010 and went on to receive her Associate Degree in Christian Education, her Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Counseling, and a Master’s in Divinity.

Fredia is blessed with many gifts and talents, but the greatest is her natural voice, which she uses generously in her home church choir, singing everywhere she is led. We were grateful to have Rev. Fredia Travis singing our Moment of Remembrance for March for Marrow 2023; and thanks to the advocacy of Myelodysplastic Syndrome patient, Mrs. Joan Durell Powell, Rev. Travis is joining us again for March for Marrow 2024.
 

2024 LOCAL SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT: Eric Shalem, Reason One 
Eric Shalem is the founder of Reason One Productions and has been a proud sponsor of March for Marrow California for over 10 years. Eric was part of one of our patient’s teams and has connected his care for her health and wellbeing with successful March for Marrow events at Shoreline Village.

Reason One is a technical event production company based in Los Angeles, CA. Their creative and engineering teams pull from elite backgrounds across the entertainment, corporate, and theatrical industries. Using tactful and cutting-edge audio, video, lighting, and fabrication, they create stunning live, corporate, and experiential events.