Joe Andruzzi Foundation Runners Finish Strong at the New Balance Falmouth Road Race

Team Joe Andruzzi Foundation (JAF) raced to the finished line during this year’s New Balance Falmouth Road Race, to raise money for patients and their families who need financial assistance as well as funding pediatric brain cancer research.  The team of 11 runners collectively raised $12,800 for the Foundation. 

The money raised from the race will grant 18 patients (and counting) financial assistance through the Foundation’s Patient Touchdown Program. 

The seven-mile historic course was hardly a challenge for JAF’s youngest runner, 10-year-old Grace Maher from Mansfield, Mass.  This was Maher’s first Falmouth Road Race and the longest distance race that she has ever competed in with over 75,000 spectators in attendance. 

Maher has raced in several community 5Ks, but the Falmouth Road Race meant more to her than any other race because -this race -she ran for her grandmother Susan, who was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago. 

Maher wanted to sign-up for the race because she was passionate about her grandmother’s illness and wanted to make a difference in helping to support cancer research. She was able to raise over $2,000 for JAF, landing her a bib to run in honor of her grandmother who passed away recently before the big race.

Maher crossed the finish line alongside her mother Jan and Team JAF runners Julie Cashman, Shannon O’Brien, Jana Heffernan, Ed O’Brien, Gillian Furey, Rebecca McCarthy, Deanna DeSilva, Meagan Wheeler and Jack Wheeler.

Maher said that she will be back next year for another big race with Team JAF.