DC Charity Spotlight: No Greater Sacrifice Endurance Team

I have a friend, Adam Zuckerman, who with the help of many committed DCers began No Greater Sacrifice (NGS). NGS serves to bridge the educational development for the children of our nation’s fallen heroes. Their job is to help finish their work by raising funds to pay for college tuition and graduate degree programs for their children. NGS accomplishes its mission by funding the charities that are already on the ground working on behalf of this noble cause.

Earlier this week I asked you, the readers, to email me about a charity you support and tell me why. My inbox lit up and a girlfriend of mine, Meredith MacKenzie a.k.a. Mac, was so inspired by NGS that she joined the 2009 NGS Endurance Team and will run in the 34th Annual Marine Corps 10 k on October 25th held in Washington, DC.

Meredith says her commitment to this race and NGS stems from her military family. "I was born on an Air Force Base. My own father has flow fighter planes for this country in combat zones for most of my life," said Mac. "I was a beneficiary of military benefits until I was 18. I went to college largely because of the USAA, the American Legion and other veterans groups who gave scholarships and my parents who cosigned my loans. I can't imagine my father not being there, I can't imagine my life without his love and support. No matter how you feel about the war politically, children who have lost a parent in the war deserve our support. These have sacrificed their family member for others' families. And because they gave their all, we can give this."

Through a series of fundraisers, most prominently the Endurance team, No Greater Sacrifice raises money to be dedicated to scholarship funds for the children of the fallen. The Endurance team's biggest event is the Marine Corps Marathon which the team runs in memory of a soldier with mile-by-mile fundraising goals for the children of that member. The Endurance team supports Zach, Levi, Sam and Hannah, children of Staff Sergeant William S. Jackson II who was killed by an IED in Ramadi, Iraq.

Mac will be on the 10K team and her fundraising goal is $500 and she only has $250 more to go! I've committed to donating $25 to her cause. Her wish is for Hannah, who never knew her father, to be able to attend whatever school she wants and study whatever she wants. Donate to Mac's cause and help her reach her fundraising goal HERE.