If you’ve ever fun an ECM event, you’ve most likely crossed paths with father-son duo, Jordan and Jeffrey! In 2019, Jordan & Jeffrey passed 640 runners (451 marathoners & 189 relay teams) raising $11,088. They chose to split their donation between myTeamTriumph and Jeffrey’s service dog fund. Together, we make a difference – thank you for being a part of it. Congrats, Jordan & Jeffrey!

In 2022, Zach Halmstad was our Charity Chaser! Zach is an alumni of EC North High School and UWEC, as an avid runner and triathlete he was up for our challenge to benefit his hometown community. Zach passed 932 participants, giving his ECM donation to the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire. To up the ante, Zach matched the donation and gave an additional $932 to the Eau Claire Area School District. Together, we make a difference – thank you for being a part of it. Congrats, Zach!

ECM Ambassadors, Jonathon and Angela agreed to be our 2024 Charity Chasers, and together, they passed 2,537 people! Jonathon and Angela matched our donation and together, we gave a gift of over $5000 to Make a Wish Wisconsin to help send Ethan to Hawaii! Together, we make a difference – thank you for being a part of it. Congrats, Jonathon & Angela!

What Jonathon had to say about being a Charity Chaser:

I wanted to let you know I still wear my Eau Claire Marathon singlet with pride.  I think back to the race my wife and I did and the opportunity we had to be selected to be the last runners to start.  I think of being able to help a wonderful child named Ethan earn the opportunity to go on a trip to Hawaii and that was amazing.  I will say that I have done a lot of races in my time.  I have done hundreds of races and have had many wonderful racing experiences and memories.  However, I have to say having the opportunity to start a race dead last and then work to pass as many fellow runners for a charity drove me with a passion.  The opportunity to be the Charity Chaser was a super fun experience.  I would say this was one of my top memories as a runner.  I'll be honest in that when it comes to races, I get worked up for runs and very nervous.  I am concerned about the clock and get anxious if I'm not in line and starting where I want to.  Usually I am toward the top of most races I do so I typically am near the front of the start line most of the time.  As a result, making sure I've done things like discarding drop bags way ahead of time and using the port-a-potty one last time early enough to avoid the line (but not not too early so that I have to go during the race).  I have a whole predictable way I approach the races I do and I have a lot of specific things I do most of the time that make talking to me and engaging with me in the time leading up to a race make me seem impersonable until the few minutes before the gun goes off.  I know many runners have very specific ways they approach an important race like a half or full marathon such as eating certain things, listening to a specific playlist, wearing a specific outfit, eating certain things at exactly the same point in a race, etc.  I loved the fact that for one race I had to disregard most things I do and just relax and wait until everyone else left.  I didn't have to wait in line with all the other nervous people.  I got to stand at the back of the line and just wait.  In the midst of that, I got to see and experience the energy of the starting line that sometimes I block out due to my race anxiety.  So as I approached the starting line, I was actually dancing in the back of the line as I didn't know what else to do and several people recorded this on video and sent it to me.  I was dancing with the music as all the runners left the starting line and I continued to stand there until someone told me that I could finally go.  This was so not like me.  But I loved it.  I had the time of my life and then in doing the race I knew I had a job to do and I went ahead and did it.  I know my wife felt the same way.  I have been meaning to tell you for sometime that this was such an amazing experience and I hope that there is sometime in the future that I can go out and do something like the "Charity Chaser" in a race again since it was so fun.  Thank you for the opportunity to be an ambassador last year.  I am excited to race again in next year's race.  Last year's race was something that I will remember for the rest of my life as one of my top running memories.  Thank you for this opportunity.