Please Support Our 2008 Sponsors!
The 2nd Annual Elephant Run May 11, 2008
This year’s 2nd Annual Elephant Run drew 431 runners and walkers and raised over $11,000 for The Marcena Lozano Memorial Scholarship Fund. Families once again engaged in various activities including kid's 50 and 100 yard dashes, a bounce house, arts and crafts and face painting and tried their luck at winning one of the many wonderful raffle items. Refreshments and music were enjoyed by all! This year’s addition of the drum circle was truly appreciated and introduced the joy of drumming to many! Please take some time to view photos of this year’s event! With hundreds of photos available, if you were present at the race you will most likely find yourself in one of them!
Members of The Marcena Lozano Memorial Scholarship Fund would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many people who volunteered their time and made donations of cash or raffle items. Your time and dedication are what has made this such a heart-warming event two years in a row!
Thanks to your generosity, the scholarship will once again assist well deserving organ transplant recipients to live their life to the fullest. In doing so, we hope to honor the memory of organ donors and the selfless acts of love from their families.
The ‘Gift of Life’ is truly a ‘Gift of Love’... thank you for helping us to radiate that love even further!
Click here to watch the 1st Elephant Run!
click to listen
Marcena Lozano was born on 2-7-1980 at Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, NY. It became immediately apparent, as this beautiful pink baby turned a dusky blue, that something was seriously wrong. Marcena’s condition was quickly diagnosed as transposition of the great arteries (TGA), where the aorta and pulmonary artery are reversed; and hours after her birth she had the first, of what would eventually become, many life saving procedures.
At the age of 13, Marcena was told that she needed a heart transplant. At the the age of 23 she was told that she needed another. Tragically, Marcena received her angel wings on 8-31-2005, leaving behind a host of family and friends who miss her immensely. She faced numerous surgeries, hospitalizations and illness in her lifetime, but she continued to beat the odds and amaze her physicians. She was focused on completing her degree and becoming a social worker to use her wisdom to help adolescents facing life-threatening illness. Marcena may have physically left us, but her amazing spirit lives on in every life she touched and none of us can forget her brilliant smile and infectious laughter. She attacked each day with an energy that her weakened body could barely keep up with. The more life threw at her, the deeper she dug to find the strength, courage and determination to survive. It is this spirit that we remember, honor and happily share with you. Click here to see Marcena's Journey
Save the date: The 2009 Elephant Run
will be held on May 10th Mother's Day 2009
All proceeds from The Elephant Run benefit the Marcena Lozano Memorial Scholarship Fund which will be awarded to transplant recipients, with priority given to candidates in the WNYarea. The name "The Elephant Run" was chosen because of Marcena's adoration of the elephant's sensitive, complex nature and highly protective extended family and her knowledge that, like the elephant, we will never forget the donors who gave new life... and we will certainly never forget Marcena.