On Saturday, June 10^th, the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorder Foundation (PMDF) and the NSTA hosted the seventh Zent-A-Thon  5K Walk/Run fundraiser at Mile Square Park. Despite the muggy weather and short shower early in the morning, we had a great turnout.

Over 125 people attended the Zent-A-Thon, making this our largest attendance to date!  A team from Kinecta Federal Credit Union in Newport Beach participated. We cannot thank them enough for joining us this year and supporting our cause. In order to accommodate the children who accompanied their parents to our fundraiser, we provided a kid-friendly supervised area with fun outdoor activities which included coloring, drawing, games, bubble machine and wands, and kids’ drinks for the children to enjoy.  Originally we were going to set up a “beach volleyball,” but our net was tangled. Fortunately, the kids were not upset and enjoyed the other activities available. Over the years our fundraiser has evolved to an event that people of all ages can enjoy!

Julianne Huttar with Acacia Health led the participants through a series of stretching exercises to help them loosen up prior to the start of the 5K. By the time we were ready to start, the light morning drizzle had stopped. The path was a little wet, but everyone was careful and a good sport about it.  After the run/walk, everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch that included sandwiches, pasta salad, fruits, and cookies provided by Katella Deli in Los Alamitos.

The 1st place winner at this year’s event was not able to stay for the prize announcement. This is a requirement in order to claim your prize. The second and third place winners were bumped up to first and second place.  Our first place winner was John Brubaker, who won the Two Hopper Tickets to Disneyland.  Our second place winner was Uma Sethuraman, who won a JumpSport Trampoline.

Registered attendees were automatically entered in the raffle. Raffle prizes included gift cards from Katella Deli, Amazon, and Target, and free tickets from Magic Mountain and Knott’s Berry Farm.  A total of 27 raffle winners took home prizes just for attending.

We would like to thank Ron, Karen, Tessa and Sean Zent for their ongoing support in spreading awareness about the event and helping with the entire fundraiser. Tessa was unable to attend this year’s event because she is working in England, however without her taking the first initiative to organize the first fundraiser in 2010, the Zent-A-Thon would not have evolved to the fundraiser it is today.  We thank all the people who volunteered to help us make this event a success. Dorothy and Caroline Tran and Andy and Kyra Nguyen got up early Saturday morning to help load the vehicles with the equipment and supplies. They also set everything up at Mile Square Park. We thank PMDF Board member Debbie Wilson and her son Brian for helping us check in people at the registration booth. This year we also have some very wonderful volunteers from the Red Cross and the Key Club of Westminster High School to help us with setup, handing out water bottles, and cleaning up.

This event would not have been possible without support from our sponsors.  We would like to thank AbbVie, Acadia, Impax, Lundbeck, Merz, UCB, and U.S. WorldMeds for supporting the missions of the NSTA and PMDF. Their contributions helped us make this event our most successful one yet! Lastly, we would like to thank Allan Ratman, the owner of the well-known and successful restaurant Katella Deli in Los Alamitos for donating the wonderful food. This event and many of the other fundraising efforts the NSTA hosts would not be possible without Allan’s support.

The NSTA and PMDF made over $22,000 from this year’s Zent-A-Thon Fundraiser. This money is dedicated to helping people with neurological movement disorders.