Who is Supporting Team Payton?

I've been absolutely amazed at the generosity of people since we started Team Payton to benefit The Believe in Tomorrow Foundation. So many people have joined to run or walk while dozens of others have made generous donations.

I decided to do an analysis to breakdown who is giving.

I went to St. Anthony's from 1978 - 1986. The school was located on Frankfort Avenue in East Baltimore, but sadly no longer exists. 6 of my friends from St. Anthony's have donated or are running.

After one of our neighbors was murdered in 1986 when we lived in Rosedale, my parents decided it was time to get out of the ghetto. A week after I graduated from St. Anthony's from the 8th grade we high-tailed it to Bel Air up in Harford County. I attended Bel Air High School from 1986 - 1990. Yes, we were the first class to graduate in the 90's, which obviously made us the coolest class EVER. 4 of my friends from high school are participating in the event.

After high school I did a two-year rotation at Harford Community College where I met my wife. So she counts from this era. After HCC I transferred to Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. One of my good friends from Winthrop has made a generous donation.

I worked a couple of jobs after college - first at the Visa Assistance Center in Owings Mills for a few months, but then left when I was offered a lucrative job at the now-defunct Carr Lowrey Glass Company in Westport, one of the many ghettos in Baltimore City (I was making $20,000 per year to start!!!). After I was happily laid off from that job, I got started at American Amalgamated Corrugated Conglomerates of America, where I've successfully moved up the ladder up to the gluing and amalgating department.

9 of my coworkers are running in the race. Another 27 have made donations. I work with some wonderful people.

In 1999 my wife and I moved from Bel Air to Eldersburg. We have rockin' neighbors who are the kindest, most generous people we've met. Maybe that means we haven't met that many people. Or we really are that lucky. 7 of our friends and neighbors are running, walking, or have made donations (and a few are walking AND have donated money!).

And there are the people I don't even know. I suspect they are friends of friends, but to think that you would help take up a cause for people you don't even know, what remarkable people! I didn't count, but I would estimate about 50 people we don't know have either signed up for race day or have made donations. To those of you we don't know or don't know yet - thank you!

Our family is helping, too. My niece is actually the 4th largest individual fund raisers thus far. My sister-in-law, my nephew, my niece, and her boyfriend are all participating. And 2 of my wife's cousins and her aunt and uncle have donated.

We have several families from my children's sports teams that have donated. And one of our best family friends from Church is on board. We were informed that the Sunday School project for this month is Team Payton. So we expect a lot of participation from them.

I still have several friends that keep promising that they will sign up.

Who hasn't signed up? Martin O'Malley hasn't signed up. Martin O'Malley - you are officially invited to sign up to run with us or make a donation to our team. If you do so, I promise to be nice to you for an entire week! Show some love, Gov!

If I've convinced you to sign up or make a donation, the CLICK HERE.