Our Story

Every race has a starting line. Here’s ours.

While volunteering in the Orthotic & Prosthetic Department of a children’s hospital, Joys met patients who wanted to donate old orthoses but did not know where to donate them (due to the custom-fit nature of orthoses, they are not reused in the US). After finding organizations that accept used orthoses, Joys regrettably saw another problem: there were no funds to send the donations overseas or to the recipient organization’s domestic headquarters, so donors must pay out-of-pocket to give their orthoses a second life. 

Joys saw that the two striking problems of (1) inclined donors being unaware of organizations that accept their donations and (2) a lack of funding to transfer donations from point A to B were not unique to orthoses. From other medical equipment to school supplies, all types of donations needed a place to go and funds to get there. And without an established system to collect and deliver donations, under-resourced communities continue to suffer. 

But what if this wasn’t the case?

If individuals and organizations hoping to do good by donating charitable items were connected with organizations already doing good but in need of resources, then a lot more good would be done with less strain on either party’s part. 

And so, Relay Runners was born with the idea that teams of communities have a larger impact than just one person alone. Now we’re committed to taking hold of the baton our donors entrust us with and passing it on to other changemakers in the largest, most impactful relay race there ever was.