The Marine Corps Marathon is right around the corner – a week and a half away.  Fundraising has been taking place for the last few months by members of Team IOH.  The top fundraiser as of October 15th is Carolyn Crooks, raising $5805 to win the fundraising competition!  Mike Davis was a close second at $5780!  The Team has shown great drive in moving towards the team goal of $75,000.  There has been some very creative fundraising ideas.  I want to share with you today a note from Gabriel, who has raised over $1000 by selling salsa and enchiladas!

Hi my name is Gabriel Benitez. I am an Engineer at Hon Oak Laminate office furniture located at Muscatine, Iowa.  I am also a girls high school soccer coach. Living in small town areas I found it difficult for fundraising, but I was able to get some fundraising. It is difficult to fundraise in small towns, since most people are usually the same people being asked for other fundraising donations. One example is, for my girls soccer team, we had a couple of fundraisers earlier this year, and I was able to get donations and fundraising money for those events. We sold t-shirts and cookie dough.

This time around for the IOH fundraising I decided to sell food. I made my own specialty salsa and chicken enchiladas. I constantly get asked, here at work, from many members about my salsa and enchiladas. I don’t know how to cook many things, but the few things that I do know I make real good.  I love all sorts of foods, but I love my salsa and enchiladas.   There is only one secret in my salsa that I will share, and that is that I add “cactus” leaves diced into my salsa.

Our thanks to Gabriel for his creative effort and his willingness to encourage us with sharing it!   The funds raised by Team IOH in the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon will be used to fund the November NYC Times Square Legacy Retreat at which 16 families will be attending.  To donate to IOH on behalf of Gabriel, you can click here.