Hi everyone! My name is Annika and for those of you who don’t know I absolutely love running. Here’s a little bit about myself and who I am; I ran my first marathon in November of 2015, the Madison Marathon, and I ran the Door County Half Marathon in May of 2016.  I will be starting my freshmen year of college next year at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities so that is why I decided to do the Twin Cities Marathon (besides the fact that I’ll be running through a beautiful city.) During college I will be majoring in Psychology with a minor in Spanish. Since the 7th grade I have wanted to become a doctor, I truly enjoy helping people and want to help make a difference in the lives of others. That is why I decided to fundraise for the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota, in particular the mental health division. I believe that mental health is an overlooked part of medicine that needs more attention. Roughly 5 million children in the US have some type of serious mental illness. In any given year 20% of American children will be diagnosed with some type of mental illness (ex. bipolar, depression, ADHD.) The majority of medication for mental health disorders have only been tested on adults; therefore, this treatment is not approved for children which creates many obstacles for families with mentally ill children. So now it’s your turn to take action and increase awareness and research for children’s mental health. Please donate today!