The Hoyt Foundation May Newsletter |
From the Office of the President |
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The 2025 Boston Marathon was one for the history books. I have 5 highlights for 2025 to share. Once again, I have to say thank you to my family and my support crew that made everything we did possible. While we were in Boston – Lisa, Troy, Amanda, Ryan, Amber, Cam, Zoe, Rob, and Zaida all worked their buts off to make sure all our events went well.
Highlight #1 – Celebrating Greek Marathon History with Legends – Thursday night the 26.2 Foundation put on an amazing event to sponsor the 2025 Boston Marathon Wreath Ceremony. It was a wonderful night chatting with Boston Marathon Legends – Bill Rogers, Meb Keflezighi and Bob Hall. Russ was even told by the Greek Consulate General that he needs to come to Greece! |
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Highlight #2 – Red Sox Honor Isabelle – Friday night at Fenway Park the Bank of America celebrated the featured charity runners including our own Isabelle Fournier. Isabelle and her family got to enjoy the game and Isabelle was introduced and got to walk out on the field! |
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Highlight #3 – Special Team Hoyt Duo Gathering – Saturday afternoon all the Duos running the 2025 Boston Marathon came together and were presented a gift from Team Hoyt and The Hoyt Foundation. |
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Highlight #4 – Honoring Bob Hall – Saturday at the BAA Gives Back event we honored Bob Hall. 50 years ago, Bob was the first person to ever complete the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair. We were thrilled to present Bob with the Dick & Rick Hoyt award to celebrate the historic accomplishment and everything he did to promote inclusion. |
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Highlight #5 – Meeting the Moment – At the 2024 Boston Marathon finish Troy and I embraced, and the moment was caught on camera. This year the BAA shared that moment all over the city and Troy and I along with the whole Hoyt family were blown away by the power of it. |
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For more about the marathon, see our marathon summary and runner thank you articles. The 2025 Team Hoyt Charity team was one to remember. |
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| Thank you all for supporting the Hoyt Family, Team Hoyt, and The Hoyt Foundation. |
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Team Hoyt Memorial Yes You Can Run Together |
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Did you know that May is mobility awareness month? What is the best way to celebrate?? Join us for… The Team Hoyt Memorial YES YOU CAN Run Together |
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During the run or the walk, you will go past the iconic YES YOU CAN statue and the start line of the Boston Marathon. What a course! |
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Come make a memory with your family like this one from the Buxton Family in 2012: |
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Team Hoyt continues to have an impact all over the world. We recently received this email:
"Greetings of the day! |
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I am Supriya Das from India and in 2015 I had the most pleasure to meet Mr. Hoyt at the book launch of Devoted in Boston - One of the best books. I was a trainee at that time at Perkins School for the Blind. Little did I know, that one day that book is going to inspire someone else here in India and create the ripple effect.
I met a person, Mr. Raj, who turned into a marathon runner out of sheer passion. And I happened to meet him at a time when he was compiling his book on the experiences of Marathon running. I told him about Mr. Hoyt. He was deeply inspired and read the whole book. He gives credit to the book Devoted for his work- Inside Running Minds." |
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We heard about a race where a family was inspired by Team Hoyt.
Phil Cook is preparing to run Sunday in Wichita’s Prairie Fire Marathon. He is an avid runner, but this run will be special. During the marathon, the 36-year-old husband and father of two girls will attempt to run while pushing his 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Stella, in a stroller for part of the race (13.1 miles). The seizures began in January 2023, and over the past two years Phil and his wife, Hannah, have faced the challenges of Stella’s condition. They have worked with a neurologist for medication to get her seizures under control and she has also undergone physical, occupational and speech therapy. “Throughout these past two years, our family has experienced both mountaintops of joy as well as valleys of deep grief,” the family said in a GoFundMe. “Respites in seizure activity, hearing Stella speak the words “momma” and “dah” (dada) and watching her take her first steps, when we previously thought she might never walk, have been treasures of God’s grace.” What was the idea behind the run? Cook said one inspiration for this run was hearing about Team Hoyt, a father-and-son duo that participated in over 1,000 endurance races.
How did the run go? According to Dave Cook, Phil’s Dad – “It was a tremendous success, and thank you for your inspiration.” We appreciate Dave sending the pictures and letting us know the race was a success. |
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Children's Hospital Donation |
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| Have you ever wondered how does all that money raised at the Boston Marathon support inclusion?
There are many ways including the Dick & Judy Hoyt YES YOU CAN Inclusion grants, support to ensure small local agencies that serve individuals with disabilities so that they can keep doing their much-needed work, and support for programs at larger institutions that align with our mission. On Friday May 9th we got a chance to deliver a donation to the Rick Hoyt Augmentative Communications Endowment Fund and see the direct effect of how that gift will improve the lives of individuals with disabilities.
Meet Joe. |
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Joe is an 11-year-old boy who cannot walk or talk, he cannot dress or feed himself. But he has a computer, and he has learned to communicate and make his needs known. One of the things Joe told his family is that he wanted to play video games with his friends. Through the support of our donation and working with a partner AbleGamers Children’s Hospital has allowed Joe to do what most other 11-year-olds do. In fact, Joe’s mom and dad told us he just met a cousin of his for the first time. Joe couldn’t run outside and play with his cousin, but he could ask him to play a video game. And they did, for hours, as if no disability existed. That is what inclusion is all about, a level playing field.
It was great meeting Joe and his family, and I want to thank our charity runner Isabelle Fournier for joining me to present the check of a $50,000 donation to John Costello, the Program Director for the Augmentative Communication Program at Children’s Hospital. |
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Brendan Aylward & Jacob Wyman |
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This Dynamic Duo is a partnership where two run like one. Brendan pushes and Jacob gets to have fun. They honor Dick & Rick by continuing to show the world Yes You Can. Brendan pumps his legs and Jacob smiles at every fan. The 2025 Team Hoyt Honorary Duo Brendan Aylward & Jacob Wyman.
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| | Bill gets a thrill from helping people in need.
He volunteers to support people with disabilities as a good deed. |
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Carmen has run New York 3 times and Chicago twice. Now she’s in Boston to run the best marathon, how nice.
She helps others have great teeth and a nice smile we know that on Monday she was ready for every mile. |
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Caitlin Brincklow & Riley
O'Sullivan |
| | Caitlin ran to honor the work of her mom and dad.
Monday was her first marathon; she followed Susan’s training plan and for that she is glad.
Riley ran her first marathon, and she thought doing it for Team Hoyt - that will be neat. She is an accountant, so we are sure she has kept track of her training on a spreadsheet.
We know she runs with passion and gives it all her heart, so we were excited on Monday to see her start. |
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| | Alex has a great email Burr its cold.
She has now run her first marathon and when she tells the story it will never get old. |
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| | Katie is back for year two with our team. We love her spirit and when she ran by, we heard everyone scream. |
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| | Inelka will tell you that helping people with disabilities defines her life. The law center she owns is run by husband and wife. They help those who can’t find their way and she will run with that same passion on Monday. |
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Isabelle Fournier (#2 Fundraiser in 2025)
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Isabelle runs for her sister’s love. Soon they will run together she will have to push she may even have to shove.
But they will run together as one and we know on Monday who was waiting to hug her when she was done. |
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Dave is truly invested in Team Hoyt’s mission. The question is will he be like a hawk and fly? We found out Monday as we saw him give his best try. |
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Adam ran for Team Hoyt back in the day, he was here when Dad and Rick were involved in every way. Adam returns to bring back the glory days
and we appreciate that in so many ways. |
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Troy Hoyt (#3 Fundraiser in 2025) |
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His grandfather told him if you’re going to push Rick you have to be a man. When he asked Rick can I push you - Rick said, “Yes You Can” |
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| Dick & Rick were father and son. This Duo is a pair where mother and daughter run. Beth & Liza are here to show - girls rule!
And we feel lucky they are running for us - it is so cool. Beth & Liza James are TEAM LIZA! |
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| Craig loves to run and all. But his true passion is still baseball. We know come Monday he will give it his all. |
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Lindsay Kalinowski (Most Creative Fundraiser 2025) |
| | Lindsay is running a marathon for the very first time. She remembers watching Dick & Rick run in their prime. From early on she watched them run now it is her turn to get it done. |
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Cheryl traveled here from LA She has run New York, Los Angles, Chicago and Berlin by the way
Oh yes don’t forget the Ironman races in Arizona and Wisconsin that she has competed in. |
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Lacey can relate to Team Hoyt’s story because of her mother. She has a disability similar to Rob and Russ’s brother.
She has four of the world Major’s already run and on Monday she will have Boston checked off, the big one – done. |
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| | JJ has always been inspired by the 3 famous words YES YOU CAN
He will need that energy soon as he adds to his clan. |
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| | Karen used to be a teacher and even a principal. But hey that is not all.
She is on her 6-star mission. When she finishes Boston she will be in an amazing position. |
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JoanAnn is a triathlete she likes to swim bike and then run. Good thing she remembered on Monday it was only the last one.
She had always wanted to compete with her brother-in-law in an Ironman. She didn’t get to do that, but can she honor his memory?
YES SHE CAN. |
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Michelle are you back again? Yes, you have run for us before and we know that you will be back for more. When your son is old enough, he will join you to run.
But remember you have a race to run Monday so let’s get it done! |
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| | Becca has run races all over this planet of ours. What’s next are you running on Mars? She has run a marathon in every state.
She has run 7 marathons on 7 continents for 7 days straight. When she crossed that finish line on Monday it was great. |
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David Saltman (#1 Fundraiser in 2025) |
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David is a family man through and through. He loves his parents and his wife and kids too.
They motivate him, empower him and make his training worth the strain. So, when on his run Monday, he felt no pain. |
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Thank You From Our Runners |
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Why run as a charity runner for Team Hoyt? Here’s what this year’s runners have to say:
“Thank you, Susan, for introducing me to Team Hoyt. Thank you, Russ, for the honor of being a member of your team. The dinner, the personalized introductions, the video, and entire experience was first class and inspiring. Thank you both for giving me a wonderful experience. You guys have it down!” - Craig Josephsen
“Dear Russ and Hoyt family, it was an honor to run the Boston marathon for Team Hoyt and I am happy to say I finished strong and received my 6-star medal! The crowd was amazing and they cheered on Team Hoyt and even yelled my name on multiple occasions :) Thank you for your encouragement but most of all thank you for what you do for kids and families with disabilities it is such a privilege to be able to be associated with you and your charity. I hope to see you again soon.” - Karen Mohr
“I don’t think I could have made it without the Hoyts and my brother-in-law Richard giving me that extra push when I needed it to get over the finish line. Not the run I wanted, but the experience was amazing and thank you for a fun-filled dinner.” - Joan Ann Natola “I just wanted to say thank you again for the opportunity to run Boston for Team Hoyt! I couldn’t count all of the thank you Team Hoyt’s and the support I received for Team Hoyt on the course. It was an amazing experience and it was an honor running for Team Hoyt!” - JJ Lavoie
“This marathon wasn't just a race — it was a celebration of perseverance, community, and gratitude. Thanks to your generosity and the strength of Team Hoyt, we raised over $200,000, directly improving the lives of those who need it most. Thank you again for being a part of this journey. Because of you, someone’s life is brighter today.” - Carmen Bonilla |
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For the month of May, Shaw’s Give Back Where It Counts is donating $1 to The Hoyt Foundation for every $3 reusable bag purchased. This is happening at the Sturbridge Store. |
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