Event reels in money for Mattel

Despite the 93-degree weather Sunday, about 1,000 students and community members gathered in Wilson Plaza to raise money for the Mattel Children’s Hospital in UCLA’s ninth annual Run/Walk.

The Run/Walk, a five-kilometer race through campus, raised a projected $30,000 to benefit the Child Life/Child Development program at Mattel to help improve the lives of children with chronic conditions. This program provides play therapy, consultations and support for the children and their families.

Amanda Maddahi, co-director of the Run/Walk, said the staff will not know exactly how much money was raised until the end of the week because people can still continue to donate this week.

The event began with host Michael Chiklis, an actor from “The Fantastic Four” movies and “The Shield,” introducing the event and talking about the importance of donating money to such causes.

There was also a speech from a mother of a Mattel patient. Her child, who has a rare bone disease, has been in the hospital since he was born. She said angels have been with her since the day he was born, then turned to the crowd and told them that they were now also her angels. She spoke about how the hospital program was not only helping her sick child, but also herself, her husband and their other child cope with difficulties.

Maddahi said she thinks the mother’s speech actually changed the tone of the event.

Rachel Cooper, a first-year world arts and cultures student, said she participated in this year’s Run/Walk not knowing too much about the cause beforehand, but said she was glad she did it.

“The speech was very emotional,” she said. “All my friends and I were so glad that we woke up early to hear it.”

During the event, there were auctions, live music and giveaways for students and adults, and a kids corner with a jumping house, crafts and hula hoops for the younger participants.

Wilson Lin, co-director of the Run/Walk, said that besides raising money, the event taught community members about the hospital program.

Lin used to volunteer for the hospital, and he said the program really helps improve the lifestyles of children who have to spend a lot of time in the hospital, sometimes without their parents, because the hospital attracts patients from all over the country.

“The money goes toward making them feel more at home in the hospital ““ makes them feel like they have a somewhat normal childhood,” Lin said.

He stressed the importance of social programs like this for children, because he said they can be sometimes overlooked as hospitals are more focused on medicinal improvement.

Maddahi said that in the four years she has volunteered for the hospital program, she has been touched by the children a number of times. Most recently, her 16-year-old family friend got into a serious car accident and was admitted to Mattel.

“As I stood there watching him lying in the bed, I was confident that he was in the best hands, and I had a sense of comfort that we are doing the best we can not only for him, but all the children in the hospital,” Maddahi said.

Maher Abdel-Sattar, a UCLA alumnus, participated in the event for the first time and said one of the things he liked about it was that it was an exciting event whose course was a reasonable distance.

“It was really fun running with everyone, and there were people encouraging you along the way,” Abdel-Sattar said.

The only concern that Abdel-Sattar had was that the hot weather was a bit unexpected.

In fact, the weather was so unexpectedly hot that the 18,000 bottles of water at the event weren’t enough and there were shortages in water bottles, a problem that the staff quickly fixed by running to a grocery store to buy more.