April 20, 2017 – On April 17, 2017, Joseph Zampitella, President of Members Mortgage Company (Woburn, MA) ran the Boston Marathon as the culmination of six months of training and fundraising. Zampitella’s team included 165 individual donors that contributed over $50,000 to the Boston Children’s Hospital as part of the Credit Unions Kids @ Heart marathon team.
While Members Mortgage has been a longtime sponsor of the Credit Unions Kids @ Heart team, this was Zampitella’s first year as a runner. In October 2016 he was asked to fill in for an injured runner. As this was his first marathon, he was initially slightly unsure, but quickly rose to the challenge.
“Due to my age (61), and inexperience as a runner it took me a few days to accept the challenge. But after consulting family members, we counted our blessings and set out on a path to learn more about our patient partner and his struggles with Moyamoya disease and how we could help,” Zampitella said about his choice to undertake the challenge.
As part of the Credit Unions Kids @ Heart team, Zampitella was paired with a patient who had been helped by the Children’s Hospital, a young boy with Moyamoya disease. Moyamoya disease is a rare cerebrovascular condition that causes arteries in the brain to narrow, constricting blood flow, and causing strokes. While Moyamoya is usually diagnosed in children under age seven, it can present at any age. Without treatment, the degenerative nature of the disease can result in multiple strokes as blood flow is constricted more severely.
Currently, there is no officially designated day for Moyamoya awareness in the state of Massachusetts. A bill proposed by Danielle Ciaccio is currently on the docket before the Massachusetts legislature with the support of 6 senators and 11 representatives. The Credit Unions Kids @ Heart team has rallied around Ciaccio to help spread awareness of Moyamoya, and advocate for May 6th to be officially designated Moyamoya Awareness Day.
In addition to supporting the advocacy of patients and their families, the Credit Unions Kids @ Heart team raised over $400,000 this year as part of their Boston Marathon fundraising efforts. Funding from CUK@H has enabled the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital to continue conducting research into rare pediatric disorders like Moyamoya, and further improve diagnostic techniques, treatments, and outcomes for patients.
According to recent research conducted by Dr. Edward Smith and his team at Boston Children’s Hospital, since 1997 there have been marked improvements in care for pediatric patients with Moyamoya disease thanks to Credit Unions Kids @ Heart support (Titsworth, Scott, & Smith, 2016).
Credit Unions Kids @ Heart brings together 59 credit unions from across the country to support their team of runners, and since 1996 CUK@H has raised nearly $5.5 million dollars for the Boston Children’s Hospital. All funds donated this year will go toward furthering research into Moyamoya disease, Cerebral Palsy, Sturge-Weber syndrome, and pediatric brain tumors.
Donations are still being accepted at www.joemarathon.com until 5/17/2017.
Boston Children’s Hospital: Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children’s Hospital has been ranked as one of the nation’s best pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for the past 23 years. Boston Children’s is the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest provider of health care to Massachusetts children. In addition to 395 pediatric and adolescent inpatient beds and 228 outpatient programs, Boston Children’s houses the world’s largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries benefit both children and adults. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and nine members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Boston Children’s research community. For more information about the hospital visit: www.bostonchildrens.org/newsroom.
Members Mortgage has been servicing the credit union community since 1994 by providing mortgage lending services and technology. Members Mortgage has been a corporate sponsor of Credit Unions Kids @ Heart since its inception in 1996.
Eastern Corporate Federal Credit Union (EasCorp) of Burlington, Massachusetts founded Credit Unions Kids at Heart in 1996 with a small group of Massachusetts credit unions. Since that time, the program has expanded nationally to include dozens of participating credit unions.
Contact: Meaghan Ingram / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
