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Team Grateful Nation Crosses the Finish Line for Bowdoin Street Youth

Katie running the Boston marathon credit: Alycia Miller/Braga Photography

Jackie Everett

Dr. Zeidel and Family credit: Alycia Miller/Braga Photography

Team Grateful Nation, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Boston Marathon team, crossed the finish line of the 114th Boston Marathon and raised more than $30,000 for children and youth programs at the Bowdoin Street Health Center.

Five runners—four BIDMC staffers and friend of the medical center—completed the 26.2-mile course in support of Healthy Champions at Bowdoin Street. Members of the team are: Jaclyn “Jackie” Everett, RN, Farr 9; Julia Lindenberg, MD, General Internal Medicine and Primary Care; Kathleen Quackenbush Spiegel, Development; Mark Zeidel, MD, Department of Medicine; and Aaron White.

Throughout their intense training and during the grueling race itself, the Team Grateful Nation runners were inspired by the Healthy Champions program at Bowdoin Street and its pivotal role in the lives of the youth and their community. Healthy Champions is a wellness program that addresses health challenges in the Bowdoin and Geneva streets neighborhood of Dorchester. Youth are selected to participate in Healthy Champions and serve as ambassadors of health, spreading the word about nutrition and fitness among their friends and families. In honor of the runners completing the Boston Marathon, the participants fulfilled their own walking/running challenge on Monday - “to get a taste of what the runners do!” according to program coordinator, Jen French.

The runners of Team Grateful Nation are passionate about health – their own and that of others. As a medical/surgical nurse, Everett is vigilant about maintaining her own health, as well as the health of others. “If you don’t have your health, your quality of life is not as high as it could be,” she said.

Team Grateful Nation and its runners continue to raise funds for the program through May. As they work to reach their highest fundraising potential, the quality of life of the kids and their families in the Bowdoin Street community is what is on their minds.

Katie and Jackie