What started off as a desperate attempt to run a race, opened my eyes to an honorable charity, a story of hope and coincidentally, a story of data. I'm a runner and an avid Disney lover and have wanted to run in the Disney World Marathon Weekend for a while now but when I went to register, there were no more open spots... so I turned to charities to find an open registration, crossing my fingers that I could squeeze in somewhere... anywhere! That's when I found Dragon Master Initiative. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but transparently, I really wanted a spot for this race... but then I watched the video below and immediately wanted to be part of their charity team, Team Fired Up. We all know someone close to us that has been affected by cancer. It hits even harder when the patient is a child. We all want to push to find a cure for cancer and/or to support those that are affected by it but a lot of times, we donate or support without truly knowing what that entails. I love knowing that this cause has a pin point target of data enablement. Something tangible. A gap that was found in the chaos and mess that is cancer and a specific goal to fill that gap. 

Dragon Master Initiative was inspired because of the loss of a child, gone too soon to cancer. They noticed a gap in data-sharing capabilities that can help to expedite patient care as well as expediate researchers' search for a cure for childhood cancer. Every charity is important and has a meaningful goal but not all of them are "glamorous." Let's be honest, data isn't always glamorous. A colleague recently used the phrase "invisible worker" and I think sometimes concepts like data-synergy are very much, the invisible worker but at the end of the day, they have the biggest impact.

So, what started off as wanting to raise money for a race bib has developed into wanting to RACE for a CAUSE. And that cause is Dragon Master Initiative.