Today, a 5k run/walk took place which included Biola students and alumni, runners from the community, and President Barry Corey beginning at 8 a.m. at the Bell Tower and ending around 9 a.m. by the soccer field. The purpose of the race was to raise awareness and support for Holoprosencephaly, also known as HPE, a rare congenital brain disease that affects one child in 5,000-10,000 live births.

Race raises awareness of HPE

Today’s race was organized by the Martinez family who are part of Families for HoPE who’s mission statement is “Sharing the HoPE in HoloProsEncephaly.”

Parents Roselle and Jerome Martinez have a daughter, Reagan, who has HPE and is said to be a miracle to have turned a year just yesterday. Studies on the disease show that 3 percent of all fetuses diagnosed survive delivery and a majority do not live past six months.

“Raising awareness and raising money and gathering together as the Biola community to support one another and have some fun,” is what Don Bernstein, Alumni Relations Manager, said in a speech to the participants before the race.

Participants from Biola, surrounding communities

When asked how many participants were expected to race, Jerome Martinez said, “We have two separate groups, right. So there is donations and then there is non-donations. So I guess between donations we are expecting about 400; non-donations probably about 200.”

The runners were made up of current students, Biola alumni, and those wanting to help with raising awareness and support for the cause.

Maria Valencia, whose son Jonathan is 12 years old and has HPE, said that the event “means bringing awareness to something that is very rare that nobody knows about.”

The event was to give hope to parents and family who have had a child born with the disease and may have died due to it or live on to be miracles to show that awareness and support is needed.

Todd Anderson, class of 1997, an uncle to a Lael who did not make it past one year old due to Pompe’s disease said that although his niece’s disease is different than that which the race represented, “it means a lot to me because it represents hope for parents who are struggling with having children of debilitated diseases, but others don’t understand those diseases, so it gives parents who don’t have hope a hope that there might one day be a cure to that disease.”

Ryan Stone and Steven Smith, both sophomores, expressed that the race was important because it allowed students at Biola and the local community to understand what HPE is and what can be done about it.

President Corey runs to support cause

With the many runners that participated in the race, Corey helped by running alongside others to support the cause. When asked what he did to prepare for the race he jokingly replied, “I registered!”

Despite registering for the race he has gotten his weekly runs and said, “I hope I have enough oxygen to talk to the people running alongside me!”

He proved just that by also talking to the many participants after the race.

Alumni band plays during race

Playing by the soccer field was a Biola alumni band who, when asked, was not quite sure what their band name was, but decided between Biola Alumni and Rey for Hope on the spot.

The band is composed of Ernesto Segismundo, class of 2001, Kurtz Ison, who spent 2 years at Biola, Chiki Ison, wife of Kurtz, Eric Yang, class of 2002, Carlo Virtucio, Aura Aragon, who spent three years at Biola, Sara Sherman, class of 2000, Andre Braine, class of 2006 Talbot School of Theology and an adjunct faculty member for the Music and Worship department, and many other members who are in the band.

Their style is described to be mostly gospel and Ernesto Segismundo said, “A lot of the worship songs we turn into living more of a gospel type of genre” like Chris Tomlin.

To describe their style he also said, “We are pretty loud. That’s how we used to do it here,” in reference to playing at Biola events such as chapels as students.

Before the race began and while still setting up band equipment, Kurtz Isan began his sentence with, “The race starts at 8 o’clock and that’s when we are on. So as soon as we see the first person we are just going to jam,” and Segismundo helped finish the last few words of his sentence.

“[The race] was awesome. We are happy with the turn out, it was more than what we expected and just thankful that people are coming out here to support us,” said Jerome Martinez at the end of the race. He also mentioned that there was an added 200-300 more participants adding to the already estimated 600.

They were still unsure of the exact amount of money raised, but Jerome Martinez looked forward to hearing a final number at the end of the day.