Local Woman's Personal Tragedy Inspires Unique Collaboration for Mercy Heart Mini Marathon
When Suzanne Meyer’s mother died suddenly of a heart attack in November of last year, it was unexpected, a shock and a huge loss to the entire family. But rather than dwell on the loss, Suzanne decided she would make something positive come out of the experience as a life lesson for her children and a legacy for her mother. As part of that commitment, Suzanne has gathered a group of co-workers, friends and family to run in this weekend’s Mercy Heart Mini Marathon, including Suzanne’s 13 year-old son, Jason. Suzanne went beyond gathering a team of runners and sponsors for the marathon, and also helped the Mercy Heart Mini Marathon event organizers overcome a challenge unique to this year’s event by enlisting the services of her employer, CallCommand, a leading provider of voice communication solutions. CallCommand is donating its services to call all 9000 pre-registered runners to inform them about a change of location for the event starting line.
CINCINNATI, OH (PRWEB) March 23, 2006
When Suzanne Meyer’s mother died suddenly of a heart attack in November of last year, it was unexpected, a shock and a huge loss to the entire family. But rather than dwell on the loss, Suzanne decided she would make something positive come out of the experience as a life lesson for her children and a legacy for her mother. As part of that commitment, Suzanne has gathered a group of co-workers, friends and family to run in this weekend’s Mercy Heart Mini Marathon, including Suzanne’s 13-year-old son, Jason. “Bad things happen to everyone. We have to pick ourselves up. Children observe how their parents’ handle adversity and this is a great way to teach them how best to go on,” Meyer commented.
Suzanne will be joined by a friend who will be running with her mother as well as several family members and co-workers from her employer; Cincinnati-based CallCommand. CallCommand will also be matching Suzanne’s sponsors dollar for dollar.
In another twist to this story, Suzanne went beyond gathering a team of runners and sponsors for the marathon, and also helped the Mercy Heart Mini Marathon event organizers overcome a challenge unique to this year’s event by enlisting the services of her employer, CallCommand, a leading provider of voice communication solutions. CallCommand is donating its services to call all 9000 pre-registered runners to inform them about a change of location for the event starting line.
The Mercy Heart Mini Marathon organizers were faced with a real challenge this year as the race has been starting at the same location for the past 28 years. However, due to Fountain Square construction, the event will start in a new location and event day registration has been moved to the Cinergy Lobby at 4th and Main.
“People are so used to the race starting at 5th & Main and coming to the Convention Center to register on the morning of the event. We were concerned that many would show up to register there, and then have to run or walk a long way to the starting line.. We desperately needed a solution to reach all entrants with a message about the change of location. The real challenge was how to effectively reach everyone in a short time period. CallCommand has graciously donated it services offering us a simple and effective solution to quickly reach all of our entrants. CallCommand is sending out approximately 9000 calls for us to all registrants informing them of the changes and providing a number for them to call,” commented Doug Martin, Metro Director of the Cincinnati Division of the American Heart Association.
Suzanne has spent the past three months training for her first 5K and is excited to honor her mother and further a great cause at the same time. “I decided to push to do something out of my comfort zone; I wanted a challenging goal. To me the most important thing is just finishing and doing something to earn money for a good cause.”
Watch for Suzanne and her appropriately named team; “Hopeful Hearts”, this Sunday, March 26.
About the American Heart Organization:
The American Heart Association is the largest voluntary health organization working to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. These diseases devastate millions of people of all ages and kill more than 930,000 Americans each year. To fight them the association supports research, education and advocacy, and helps heart disease and stroke patients. Over 22.5 million association volunteers and supporters are at work in their communities helping their friends, neighbors and loved ones live longer, better lives.
For more information please visit www. americanheart. org
About CallCommand:
CallCommand is a leading provider of communication solutions for retailers, businesses and government agencies. Their patent pending technology decreases marketing and communication costs while simultaneously improving customer responsiveness. All CallCommand solutions are fully web-based and do not require hardware, software or telephony equipment.
For additional information please contact Lindsay Whitson: phone: 1-877-862-6662, or visit CallCommand’s web site at www. callcommand. com.
###
