Join the Team -- Run, Ride or Swim to Help Waiting Kids Find Families!

Do you like to run? Have you ever thought about doing your first 5K? Are you a triathlete, or know someone who is? If so, consider joining Team Orphans! Choose a race, find friends to sponsor you, and race while raising money for Brittany’s Hope Foundation.

Rebecca crosses the finish line at Ironman Texas!

Brittany’s Hope provides grants to help families adopt specific waiting children, all of whom have medical needs, are older, or are part of a sibling group. By partnering with Holt and other adoption agencies, this wonderful grant-making foundation helps ensure that waiting children are united with the loving families they deserve.

In their efforts to raise money for these special needs adoptions, Brittany’s Hope is now launching a nationwide campaign called “Team Orphans.” Participants choose a race, set a fundraising goal and then find friends and supporters to sponsor them. After the race, they donate the money they raised to Brittany’s Hope Foundation, which in turn puts the funds toward special needs adoption grants.

The idea for Team Orphans started with Rebecca Cruttenden of Michigan, a dedicated mom of three adopted children and a 2003 Brittany’s Hope grant recipient. An active swimmer, cyclist and runner, Rebecca decided to participate in her first half Ironman triathlon in 2010. At the same time, she decided to put her energy toward a good cause – raising money for Brittany’s Hope as a way to “pay back” the grant she received in 2003. She raised $10,000, paying the grant back in full. The following year, she did it again – completing Ironman Texas and raising another $7,000 for Brittany’s Hope. With the money raised from her Ironman 70.3 Muncie and Ironman Texas events, she has helped families adopt eight waiting children – five from the Philippines, and three from Haiti.

The most recent recipient of her generosity is a Holt family! John and Sandi Polzin of Wisconsin have adopted through our Haiti program before, and are now in process to adopt a sibling group of three. Already selected for a Brittany’s Hope Seedling Gift, the Polzins were later awarded the $7,000 that Rebecca raised in her last triathlon.

Since Rebecca’s last event, a friend challenged her to think bigger, asking: “What do you see with your ministry in five years?”

“My dream would be one thousand people all over the country racing and raising money for orphans,” she says. “Men and women are racing for cancer, leukemia, and all kinds of medical causes. But who is racing for adoption? What about the 163 million orphans in the world? Each one needs a family!”

Team Orphans is now looking for partners to support Rebecca’s mission – helping more children experience the miracle of adoption. 

Athlete or not, Team Orphans offers many ways to get involved: 

1. Sign up for a race or triathlon, set your fundraising goal, and sign up at www.teamorphans.com.  Remember, you don’t need to be fast; just finish!
2. Share this article with someone you know who likes to run, bike or swim, and offer to be their first sponsor.
3. Volunteer to put the Team Orphans flyer in the registration packets of a race in your city. Contact rcruttenden@teamorphans.com for more information.
4. Sponsor a Team Orphans athlete with a tax-deductible donation at www.teamorphans.com.