Houma Tunnel to close next week
April 13, 2017
Lafourche voters set to choose whether teachers get pay increase
April 18, 2017
Terrebonne General Medical Center received a hefty gift earned through local generosity and sweat.
The Cooper Life Fund gave a $10,000 check to the Foundation for TGMC this week. The check amounted to the money earned from the Super Cooper 5K in Houma last month.
This year’s check brings the Cooper Life Fund’s total earnings for TGMC to $143,000 since the inaugural run in 2006. The money raised goes toward supporting families in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where babies born premature or with health defects must stay.
John Fontenot, who started the event with his wife, Ashley, after their second son, Cooper, was born with a rare heart defect, said the family’s goal each year is to raise about $8,000, with anything after that being lagniappe. He said he was proud of this year’s showing, a product of sponsorships, donations and runner registrations, in the face of the local economic downturn.
“It is kind of tough, and it’s hard to solicit that [amount of money]. It’s hard for me to go ask and say, ‘Can you support again this year,’ knowing what the economy is doing,” Fontenot said. “But the fact that we still get there is a testament to the support we have from the community.”
Now that the local 5K is finished, the CLF will focus on a summer trail run, called the Strong Heart Trail Trot. The two-mile run, which began two years ago, raises money through runner registration and donations for a local family in need. Fontenot said the run has raised around $2,000 for families in the past. Fontenot said he and Ashley have not identified a family this year yet, although they have a few in mind. The details for the race will be finalized in May before the run happens at the Southdown Trail off of Valhi Blvd. in June or July.
“It’s great doing it. It’s so good to watch people come together to help total strangers. It’s just wonderful,” Fontenot said.
