Help Laurel raise money

Hello! My name is Laurel, and I am thrilled to be running the Falmouth Road Race a second time to fundraise for AAFANE. Having several friends and family members with allergies and asthma and having grown up with severe food allergies myself, I have experienced the day-to-day logistical challenges and awkward social situations that can arise from a lack of education surrounding food allergies, and have spent long nights in emergency rooms after a anaphylactic reaction to an allergen. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend workshops hosted by AAFANE when I was in elementary school to learn about some basic allergy safety, and for their continued support of allergy and asthma research. Through events hosted by them, my family and I have also learned about promising potential treatments for food allergies!

I am about to enter my junior year of college. When I first arrived at school nearly two years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the kindness, competence and knowledge of the dining services staff. My experience this summer, eating in a new dining hall during an internship and navigating food-related social situations with new friends who might not know about my allergies, has been similarly manageable and understood. I know that this understanding willingness to accommodate medical dining restrictions has not always been the norm at large institutions, and that the awareness of food allergies we see in today's society is due in large part to the work of organizations such as AAFA. Thanks to them and other advocates for research and education, I and countless students like me can focus on our education without needing to worry about access to safe, nutritious meals.

So much progress has been made in asthma and allergy research and advocacy over the last several decades, but there is still so much to do! I hope you will consider donating to our team to help make this possible. Thank you very much!