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the Lockport Legend | October 5, 2017 | 3
Sisters choose Autism Speaks
for marathon fundraiser
Jessie Molloy
Freelance Reporter
In the midst of Lockport’s
Sweet and Savory Crawl on
Sept. 17, large crowds were
everywhere around the city’s
restaurants and sweet shops.
But one venue in particular
— Cool Creations — had
an extra group congregated
around its front door, drawn
to a small table bedecked in
by balloons and homemade
posters.
While this table was not affiliated
with the crawl, it was
also being used to raise money
for a worthy cause: autism
awareness.
Sam, Jen, and Morgan
Bond are running the Bank of
America Chicago Marathon
on Sunday, Oct. 8, and are
doing so in partnership with
Autism Speaks, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to autism
awareness and research.
The three sisters grew up in
Lockport and decided to use
the crawl and their lifelong
friendship with Cool Creations’
owners, the Yukich
family, to help fund their run.
“When you sign up to run
the marathon you either have
to pay a personal registration
fee or you can partner with
a charity,” Jen explained. “I
work with kids with autism,
so we decided to run as a
team and raise money for
Autism Speaks.”
Jen works in Dubuque,
Iowa, doing Applied Behavioral
Analysis for students
with autism in a local school
district.
“It’s a form of pull-out therapy
for students in kindergarten
through fifth grade,” she
said. “I take them out of the
classroom for a set amount of
time so they can get the help
they need and still interact
with the rest of their peers in
the regular classroom.”
Jen became passionate
about helping autistic students
while she was in college
at University of Wisconsin
Platteville when she
started babysitting for a family
with two sons receiving
ABA.
“The boys’ mom recommended
I work as a behavioral
therapist because I was so
good with them,” Jen said. “I
got a part-time job doing ABA
while I was still in school and
I fell in love with it.”
When her older sister, Sam,
asked Jen to run the marathon
with her in spring of 2015,
she knew she wanted to use
it to help her favorite cause.
“The first year we ran
the marathon we signed
up separately,” Jen said. “I
ran for Autism Speaks and
my sister ran for a different
charity. This year we’re doing
it as a team and we’re
all donating to Autism
Speaks.”
Sam decided to start running
the marathon as a way
of staying active after graduating
college.
“I ran track in high school
and then did track and crosscountry
at St. Francis University,”
Sam said. “After I graduated
I wanted to make sure
I kept running, so I thought
the marathon would give me
something to work towards.
“I texted my sisters and
asked if they wanted to do
the marathon with me and
Jen said yes right away, then
texted me back, like, five
minutes later and asked ‘how
long is a marathon, again?’”
Sam recalled with a laugh.
The sisters are working to
raise the necessary $5,000
entry fee by collecting donations
and selling ribbons
and can Koozies with autism
awareness puzzle pieces on
them.
“We made the ribbons
ourselves and we paid to
have the Koozies made, but
we’re not planning on making
that money back,” Sam
explained. “One hundred
percent of all our donations
are going directly to the organization.”
The Taft School and Lockport
Township High School
alums were still $1,000-
$1,500 shy on their donation
goal one week before the
race.
“We’ve still got some
Koozies to sell, so if anybody
is interested they should
reach out to us on Facebook
or call us,” Sam said.
While most of the sisters’
funds have been raised
through social media or word
of mouth, they did gain attention
through their table at the
Sweet and Savory Crawl.
“We knew Jen was going
to be in town on the 16th
and 17th [of September], so
we asked the Yukiches if we
could fundraise outside,” explained
Morgan, Jen’s twin.
“They told us we could and
that we’d actually picked a
great weekend because they
were going to have a bunch
of people coming through
with the crawl, so it worked
out really well.”
This year will be Sam’s
third Chicago marathon,
Jen’s second, and Morgan’s
first.
“I’m really excited that all
three of us are going to do it
this year,” said Jen, who has
been training for the run with
Morgan since spring. “Sam
is much faster than me, so
now I’ll have somebody to
run more with,” she said with
a laugh. “I’m happy this is
Sam (left) and Morgan Bond (right) along with their sister Jen (not pictured), are raising
money for Autism Speaks prior to running the Chicago Marathon. Photo submitted
something we’ll be able to
share now because we’re really
close and it’s a big accomplishment
being able to
even finish a whole marathon.”
The Bond sisters say they
appreciate any donations
people can make to support
their run and Autism Speaks.
Anyone interested in supporting
their efforts can contact
one of the girls directly
or Google Autism Speaks
with their team name “Bonds
for Blue” to access their donation
website through the
marathon.
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