The Joseph Maley Foundation 2017 5K Run, Walk, Roll:

Here’s how you can help Indianapolis-area children & have a great time doing so

The spirit of service is the spirit of a community

A good measure of a community’s vitality is the willingness of its members to perform selfless service. The more people who, together and individually, contribute their time and themselves for the benefit of others, the more the community becomes a better place for all.

Not everyone is inclined to participate in this spirit of service. It is a gift that a relative few choose to give. And one of the ironies of life is that often these social pillars, who do so much worthy of recognition, go unrecognized. Much of what they do is not glamorous. Many of them do not seek attention for their service. But they and their activities are key to making Indianapolis such a great place to live, work and raise a family.

At Doehrman Buba, we admire those who give back to our city and its surrounding areas. That’s why we’re one of the sponsors for the Joseph Maley Foundation’s 2017 5K Run, Walk, Roll event, to be held on Saturday, July 15, 2017. And to further show our appreciation for those who do good things for others, we’re holding a contest to give away four participation tickets (value up to $140) to this event.

We’ll give more details on the contest in a moment . But first we want to highlight the important work that the Joseph Maley Foundation does for children in our community, so that if you win the contest you’ll better understand one of the important benefits of participating in the 5K event.

What is the Joseph Maley Foundation?

Joseph Maley was born with disabilities, both cognitive and physical. He could not speak. But he never let his physical limits become barriers to living a life of meaning. To those who met him, he was not disabled as much as he enabled: through his own contagious effervescence he demonstrated every day that love and acceptance for all exist in each of us. By his own example he encouraged everyone to find in themselves and to share that same spirit.

When Joseph died at the age of 18, his parents John and Vivian, along with their other four children, knew that his message of love and acceptance for all was worth keeping alive. They created the Joseph Maley Foundation toward this end. Today the Foundation serves children with disabilities and others through programs that raise disability awareness in schools, provide advocacy services for families and educators, offer emotional, physical and mental health services to disabled children and their families, and more.

The importance of the Foundation’s work is reflected by a simple statistic: five percent of school children in Indianapolis have some form of disability, with four of five having cognitive disabilities. Of these cognitive disabilities, the vast majority are “mild” in nature – meaning that far from being sequestered away from other students, many of these children are present in the same classrooms and participate in the same activities as their peers. They cannot be sidelined, ignored, or forgotten, and the Foundation sees to it that they are not.

Through its theme of “Serving children of all abilities,” the Foundation promotes the message that all children can make a positive difference in their communities and in the world. The 5K Run, Walk, Roll event in one way the Foundation spreads its message of acceptance and inclusion for every child, without regard to external “labels” that others might apply to them.

The 5K Event

The 5K Run, Walk, Roll is multiple events in one:

If you are a serious competitor (the event is the Indiana 5K Championship race for the USA Track & Field organization), the timed Elite Race begins at 8:00 AM.

If you want to participate but aren’t concerned about how fast you finish, the open event begins with the wheeled start at 8:30 and the everyone else at 8:35. The course begins at Michael Carrol Stadium, then follows a route through downtown Indianapolis on both sides of the White River before finishing back at the stadium.

Aside from the 5K course, the event will also have activities suitable for all family members as well as musical entertainment and refreshments. It’s the perfect opportunity to get outside and enjoy an active summer morning, while being able to participate in as worthy a cause as it gets (all event proceeds will go toward funding the Joseph Maley Foundation’s programs).

The Contest

Registration for the 5K event can cost up to $35 per person, depending on age or status as a student, but how would you like to join in for free? To win four tickets on us, participate in our contest. Here’s how:

We want to know more, and show more, about how members of the Indianapolis community are serving others, especially children. Tell us your answer to the following question by leaving a comment on our Facebook page –

“What is one thing that I do to empower children in the Indianapolis area, or to advocate on their behalf?”

If we like your answer the most, you win the tickets – and the chance to have your story told to the community.

We’ll choose the winner on Thursday, July 13th. If that’s you, you will be given a Promo Code on Friday the 14th.

Be There!

It’s not every day that you can be part of something that is an unmixed benefit to everyone, but even if you don’t win our contest the 2017 5K Run, Walk, Roll is still definitely worth being a part of: you can get outdoors, get some exercise, see and meet other members of the Indianapolis community who care about the welfare and development of its children as much as you do, know that your participation will not only raise money for a good cause but boost awareness of that good cause, and – not least importantly – have fun while doing all of the above.

Good luck in the contest! If you have any questions about it, let us know. We’re looking forward to seeing you on Saturday the 17th!