[Editors] Communicating about the MIT Strong marathon team

[Chad Galts]

Dear MIT Communications Colleagues,

As many of you know, MIT will field a team of runners for this year’s Boston Marathon. MIT Strong (http://mitstrong.mit.edu/team) is a group of 38 students, faculty, alumni, and staff from every corner of the MIT community who are training hard and raising money for the Collier Fund. The odds are good that at least one of these people has a meaningful connection with YOUR department, lab, center, program, office, group, etc. We’re asking for your help in telling their stories. 

MIT Strong has been working with the News Office to post coverage of MIT Strong (http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/mit-strong-marathon-team-off-to-a-strong-start). We will continue to run overview stories like this, but we are writing you with a two-part, special request: please share this coverage with your audiences so they know your DLC is part of the effort, and please consider creating more of your own stories that are specific to the runners in your DLCs. Many of the Institute’s closest friends stay connected to MIT through your websites, newsletters, emails, social media channels, etc., and we believe your efforts will be especially helpful in spreading the word about the team to the MIT community, on campus and beyond. 

Every request for help that the team has made so far has been met with enthusiastic support — from DAPER, the President’s office, the Alumni Association, the COOP, and many others. We are deeply appreciative of the support we have already received, and we want to make sure that as many people as possible are made aware of this important community-building activity. Along with pausing and paying due attention to our loss from last April, we want to give the MIT community something to cheer for at this year’s marathon. Please help us.

Sincerely,

The Members of MIT Strong

Joseph Azzarelli, Graduate Student, Chemistry
Ryan Borker, Graduate student, MIT Sloan
Kris Brewer, Staff, School of Engineering
Samantha Carney, Former staff
John Cunniffe, Staff, MIT Facilities
Rachel Delucas '03, DMSE
Jim Dicarlo, Professor and Dept. Head, Brain & Cog; McGovern Institute
Jenn Gagner '07, DMSE
Chad Galts, Staff, School of Engineering
Tom Gearty, Staff, MIT Resource Development
Mike Gerhardt '12, DMSE, Minor in music
Domingo Godoy, Graduate student, MIT Sloan
Madeline Hickman '11, MechE
Bill King, Staff, MIT Police
Stephanie Kloos, Staff, DAPER
Jean-Paul Lauture, MIT Sloan EMBA
Sarah Lewis, Staff, MIT Lincoln Lab
Maggie Lloyd '12, Course 10B (Chemical-Biological)
Charlie Maher,  MIT Sloan EMBA
Adam McCready, Staff, Student Life
Christine Meagher, Staff, MIT Resource Development
Tim Mertz, Staff, DAPER
Sally Miller, undergraduate student, MechE
Brian Mulcahey '86, EECS
Dava Newman, Professor, AeroAstro; Housemaster, Baker House
Dan Oliver '60, MechE
Madeleine Pascolini-Campbell, Advanced Study Program Fellow '13
Julie Pryor, Staff, McGovern Institute
Jeremy Rishel '94, EECS & Linguistics/Philosophy; current graduate student, MIT Sloan
Jess Rooney Gallagher, Staff, DAPER
Jonathan Runstadler, Assistant Professor, Biological Engineering and Division of Comparative Medicine
Sam Shames, undergraduate, DMSE
Stephen Shum, graduate student, EECS
Alex Slocum, Professor, MechE; ESG Director
Nader Tehrani, Professor, Head of the Department of Architecture
Peter Whincop, Lecturer, Music Dept.
Gordon Wintrob '12, EECS