For what would have been my sister Emily's 36th birthday this year (Oct. 29), I'm running in the Flying Pig Half Marathon (with my good friend Max Glassner) in an effort to raise awareness and funding for teacher projects through the organization DonorsChoose (https://www.donorschoose.org/about).

As most of you may know, Emily's life was taken from us far too soon in a tragic single car accident back in February of 2019.

Emily was without a doubt one of the most beautiful, selfless and loving human beings that I've ever known. I loved (and will love) her with all my heart now and forever. I try to make sense of how something like this could happen to such a good person but then I remind myself of how much good she put in to the world while she was here. She was a daughter, a sister, a friend, a teacher, a mentor, a Colts/Buckeyes fan and an unbelievable role model.

Emily was a deeply spiritual person and devoted her life to God and helping others. After the accident, I was in awe of how many people reached out to let us know about all the different ways she impacted so many lives across the world (literally). It was simply amazing. Whether it was from her time growing up in Cincinnati, her experiences at Miami University, her life in Indianapolis or her adventures as a teacher in South Korea. She lived an unbelievably fulfilling life from which she accomplished so much. She had SO many good friends and truly was universally loved.

Almost more than anything, she loved children and teaching. However, I know that at times she struggled with the decision to make that her career because of how grossly underpaid teachers are. It's unfortunate that this is such an issue in our country because a child's education is so unbelievably important. Teachers are underpaid, underappreciated and over-worked.

The thing(s) that I like about the DonorsChoose organization is that it appears to be a very targeted and transparent group that helps to fund classroom projects that would otherwise need to be paid for by the teacher(s). Essentially here is how it works:

Another nice thing about this organization is that the requests for funding are typically not huge sums. Meaning that however much money is raised from our endeavors here could potentially fund several different projects. Every single dollar that is raised through this GoFundMe page will go directly towards funding as many different projects as we can in the Indianapolis and Cincinnati areas.

I'll keep this page up and open until Max and I run the race on Saturday, October 30th. After that, I'll look to select as many projects as I can and re-direct the money to those causes. Afterwards, I'll make sure to post all the details of where the money is going and who it is helping.

Please consider donating. This is for a really good cause and will help (hopefully) many teachers create lasting experiences for their students. Even a donation of $1 would be awesome so please think about taking the time to do this.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help.

-Matt Hall