Bridge the Gap to Health Race presents check to Quincy Catholic Charities MedAssist Program

QUIN­CY, IL – Hun­dreds of walk­ers and run­ners came out for the annu­al Bridge the Gap to Health Race this past May. This year, the Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Health­care Foundation’s event raised $54,250 in sup­port of the Quin­cy Catholic Char­i­ties MedAs­sist pro­gram. A check pre­sen­ta­tion took place on Wednes­day, July 10 at Clat Adams Park in Quincy. 

In the 19 years since the race began the event has raised more than $840,000 for MedAs­sist which has been used to access more than 55,000 pre­scrip­tions at a val­ue of $19.5 mil­lion. The pro­gram works with indi­vid­u­als to ensure they have access to life-sav­ing pre­scrip­tion med­ica­tion. MedAs­sist is fund­ed sole­ly through the gen­eros­i­ty of the Unit­ed Way, Bridge the Gap to Health, indi­vid­ual dona­tions, and min­i­mal client fees.

Quin­cy Catholic Char­i­ties Area Direc­tor Jack­ie Bruns said ​“Quin­cy Catholic Char­i­ties is pleased to accept the pro­ceeds from the Bridge the Gap to Health race for the 19^th year. This fundrais­er con­tin­ues to help those that suf­fer from chron­ic dis­ease and strug­gle to pur­chase life-sus­tain­ing med­ica­tions on their own,” Bruns said. ​“We are remind­ed on a dai­ly basis how impor­tant the MedAs­sist Pro­gram is to the com­mu­ni­ty and to those who are faced with the dilem­ma of obtain­ing their rou­tine medications.”

Lau­ra Ten­house, QMG Com­mu­ni­ty Rela­tions Direc­tor, said, ​“It is a true tes­ta­ment of com­mu­ni­ty col­lab­o­ra­tion to see so many indi­vid­u­als, busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions come togeth­er to help us put on such a seam­less and suc­cess­ful event.”

Next year, will mark the 20^th year for the event. Jen­nifer Sousa, Bridge the Gap to Health Race Orga­niz­er said, ​“We are so excit­ed to cel­e­brate this mile­stone with all of our spon­sors, vol­un­teers, and par­tic­i­pants. This race would not be pos­si­ble with­out all of their ded­i­ca­tion and the sup­port of the QMG Health­care Foun­da­tion. I am look­ing for­ward to see­ing what changes we can bring to the 20^th year to add even more excite­ment to the race.”

Pro­ceeds from the event come from a com­bi­na­tion of reg­is­tra­tion fees, dona­tions, and spon­sors. Spon­sors of this year’s race were Quin­cy Med­ical Group, Dot Foods, Bless­ing Health Sys­tem, WGEM, Adams Coun­ty Med­ical Soci­ety Alliance, Bank of Spring­field, Gard­ner Den­ver, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Her­ald-Whig, Hy-Vee, SIU Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine Cen­ter, Kohl’ Whole­sale, Mer­can­tile Bank, Quin­cy Catholic Char­i­ties, QMG Sports Med­i­cine, Quin­cy Park Dis­trict, Quin­cy Recy­cle, Quin­cy Uni­ver­si­ty, Refresh­ment Ser­vices Pep­si, Sel­by Imple­ment, Stara­dio (WQCY & WCOY), State Street Bank, Coun­ty Mar­ket, Town­square Media (Y101 & Kick FM), Repub­lic Ser­vices, and Winter’s Insurance.

Spe­cial thanks also go to Adams Coun­ty Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency, the City of Quin­cy, Illi­nois Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion, and Mis­souri Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion for allow­ing the use of city and state road­ways, per­son­nel, and equipment.

The 2020 race is set for May 16, 2020. For more infor­ma­tion about Bridge the Gap to Health, go to www​.brid​geth​e​gap​to​health​.com.