Mission Monday: Bruce Cleland at 25th Anniversary Gala

Bruce Cleland (center) with North Texas Team In Training staff
and Team In Training Vice President Chris Fenton (far right)
at the Team In Training 25th Anniversary Gala on June 30, 2013.

When Team In Training (TNT) founder Bruce Cleland visited North Texas for the Team In Training 25th Anniversary Gala, he told the inspiring story of how he and a group of friends created the groundbreaking charity training program in 1988.  He also shared a number of personal photographs with Gala attendees.

Bruce introduced the Gala crowd to his motivation: his young daughter, Georgia.  She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was just two years old. 

Bruce shared the picture above of Georgia during her tough treatment with her doll, which she named Dolly.  When diagnosed, her chances of surviving were 50-50.  Fortunately for the Cleland family, Georgia would be a success story

After Georgia's treatment, Bruce decided to fundraise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (then The Leukemia Society of America) by recruiting a group of individuals to run in the New York City Marathon.  He set out on a recruiting process of finding not only runners but also corporate backers to fund their effort.  The picture above is the first Team In Training team ever formed.  The picture was taken after one of their first training runs.

After months of training and fundraising, all 38 members of the first Team In Training team crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon.  The group raised $320,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and blood cancer research and created a world-wide phenomenon of endurance charity training programs.

Above is a picture of Bruce finishing the New York City Marathon in honor of Georgia.  The bright tights, a gift from the team inagural TNT team the night before the race, are still around and making appearances.

They spent much of the night of the North Texas Team In Training 25th Anniversary Gala tied around his neck like a cape.

And Georgia Cleland?  She is following in her father's very famous footsteps and helping to raise money for other blood cancer patients.  Georgia, now 28, finished her first TNT event in 2012 and is currently training for the San Francisco Women's Marathon this October.