"I feel so glad to do this for all those people who fight for the cancer."
Meria is from Ecuador, but has lived in Willmar for the past 25 years. She saw a post on Facebook where the American Cancer Society posed the 100 Mile New Year Challenge and it left a big impression on her. "In my family as had an uncle who died from cancer.
Andres Albertsen is the pastor at Iglesia Paz y Esperanza, which is a small Latino Lutheran church in Willmar. "I thought immediately that we should support her as a church. We set up, following the instructions of the American Cancer Society, a fundraiser on Facebook in the name of the church, supporting the Cancer Society, as Maria Isabel's run," Pastor Albertsen said. "So far, we have raised $650, already above our initial expectations, so we are glad with the support of friends and community members to this effort."
Mera welcomed the support from the church because it allowed her fundraiser to reach more people than she could alone. She also thought that it legitimized her effort. "This is for support so I can say, 'Yes, actually, I'm running for this event. It makes it serious for the church to support in this way," she said.
"And well, this is not only a person running but an immigrant running." Pastor Albertsen said. "This is also another thing we want to call the attention to, that immigrants are integrated members of our society who have positive contributions to make us everybody else."
Mera said that doing this is important to her because immigrants experience sickness from cancer too. "There are many people, especially immigrants, who are sure where they can get help, so this association helps these people. They can move forward with treating this sickness because it's hard, in reality, it's hard ... to be in the United States and not have [health] insurance and this association helps immigrants," she said.
Meria said that they had 31 days to finish 100 miles. She finished in 22 days and she has more running to do!
