Run, eat, run in the Donut Dash
Eating a half-dozen doughnuts midway through a 2-mile race may seem counterintuitive, but it’s a goofy, fun way to raise money for a great cause during next Sunday’s annual Donut Dash sponsored by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Carnegie Mellon University.
The race, open to the public and beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Schenley Plaza in Oakland, involves participants running a mile, stopping to eat a half-dozen donuts — or as many as possible for those in the “Casual Division”— and then running another mile.
The night before the race fraternity brothers rent a UHaul and drive to Dunkin’ Donuts outlets all over the region to pick up more than 7,000 doughnuts for dash day. In addition to the race, there also is a doughnut eating contest and music.
Over the past two years, the fraternity’s charity run has raised more than $200,000 for the Live Like Lou Center for ALS Research at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute. The center is named for the patient advocacy organization LiveLikeLou.org started by Neil and Suzanne Alexander. The nonprofit, administered through the Pittsburgh Foundation, is dedicated to raising money to fund patient care and research to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Mr. Alexander, 49, of O’Hara died of ALS in March 2015. Just six weeks earlier, the couple announced the creation of the Live Like Lou Center and pledged to raise $2.5 million over the next five years for the project, while Pitt will match it in an effort to put $10 million into the facility.
The fraternity chose to help LiveLikeLou.org in its pledge to the ALS research center after learning that its chief alumni adviser, Bob Dax, a 1972 CMU graduate, was diagnosed with ALS in January 2014. The fraternity has pledged to raise $500,000 over five years for the Live Like Lou Center.
The center focuses on developing new treatments and improving the quality of life for people with ALS, a progressive, degenerative neurological condition. The center’s ultimate goal is to find a cure for the fatal condition. The disease is named after the New York Yankees Hallof-Fame first baseman who died of it in 1941 at age 37.
Because of the event, Schenley Drive, Schenley Drive Extension, Panther Hollow and Roberto Clemente Drive will be closed to traffic at 10:30 a.m. and will reopen at 1:30 p.m. More information is available at http://www.pghdonutdash.org.