By Khalida Sarwari
Few 10-year-olds have had a more whirlwind summer than Sacred Heart student Sam Nash. After spending most of June running and raising money for cystic fibrosis research, he ended July wading through a pile of checks he’d received for his fundraiser over the summer.
The checks–amounting to nearly $15,000–will go toward the Elizabeth Nash Foundation, a nonprofit created in honor of Sam’s aunt, who died 10 years ago at the age of 32 from cystic fibrosis. In a few weeks, he’ll have yet another check to add to the pile from the 1440 Foundation, an organization that seeks to support extraordinary and inspiring acts, particularly by youth. The organization, according to Sam’s father, Patrick Nash, has agreed to match dollar for dollar whatever Sam raised via his run.
“We knew nothing about them,” Nash said. “They came totally out of the blue. It was incredible.”
With the 1440 Foundation’s donation, the total Sam collected through his fundraiser is just short of $30,000, providing “a shot in the arm” for the Elizabeth Nash Foundation, Nash said.
“We’ll be able to do more science work and [award] more scholarships than we had originally planned on doing, which is great,” he said. The nonprofit, which was founded by the Nash family shortly after Elizabeth Nash’s death and the birth of Sam and his twin sister, Sydney, raises funds annually for cystic fibrosis research and scholarships for people afflicted with the disease.
The crux of Sam’s idea was to raise $2,000 from June 1 to 30 by running on his own and having people sponsor him by the mile. By the end of June, he had run 30 miles.
“He was shooting for 20 miles,” his father said. “He kind of just kept rolling.”
Sam’s mother, Carolyn, helped him get the word out by using social media and passing out letters around his neighborhood and school. The Sacred Heart School fifth-grader ended up exceeding everyone’s expectations, especially his family members who were pleased to see the shy boy muster the temerity to carry out a campaign of this magnitude. And he has done most of it on his own, said his father, from hatching the idea to the execution and public outreach.
“It gives him something to be proud of,” Nash said. “I think he’s happy he did it.”
Everyone in the family has been blown away by the outpouring of support Sam has received from the community, Nash said. Donations have come from a wide spectrum of folks from Sacred Heart and the wider Saratoga community. What the family did not count on was the amount of attention Sam’s fundraiser has received from unexpected sources, including a Stanford University Nobel laureate, Patrick’s sister’s employer and the 1440 Foundation, all of whom have made generous donations to the cause.
“I feel great about it,” Sam said. “I’m probably going to do it again next year, too.”
Next year’s fundraiser will be slightly different, Sam said. He indicated that he doesn’t want to limit himself to running 30 miles as he did this year and he also wants to enlist the help of his friends and classmates to solicit donations and run in teams.
Visit elizabethnashfoundation.org/donate.html to learn how you can support Sam’s efforts and the fight against cystic fibrosis.
