Team HEAL Foundation, Inc. NAMED AS AN OFFICIAL
CHARITY FOR 2006 CITY OF LOS ANGELES MARATHON

The City of Los Angeles Marathon has designated Team HEAL Foundation, Inc. as an Official Charity for the 2006 race to be held on March 19, 2006. For that distinction, the charity can use the L.A. Marathon presented by Honda as a fundraising vehicle to support its exemplary work.

Team HEAL Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing certified athletic trainers and comprehensive medical care to under-served high school student athletes. At the present time, we provide services to the following four schools: Banning, Carson, Crenshaw and Manual Arts. The Team HEAL athletic trainers at each site provide physical conditioning, rehabilitative therapy as well as medical care daily for injured athletes. Athletic trainers are also present before, during and after all sporting events. In support of the program, volunteer orthopedic surgeons contribute their professional services at all home games.

In addition to these schools, there are 24 other inner-city high schools that are in need of our program. Many of these schools continue to request our services. However, the number of schools that we are able to serve depends on the amount of funds raised.

Funding for the Team HEAL Foundation is strictly from charitable grants and donations from organizations, corporations and individuals (no funding is available through the school district). All funds raised go toward medical supplies and equipment for our training rooms, the salaries for our certified athletic trainers and for promotion of our organization. Our foundation will be involved with the L.A. Marathon's Official Charity Program for the first time this year. We hope to raise much needed funding for our work and definitely look forward to being a part of such a major community event as the City of Los Angeles Marathon.

The Official Charity Program of the L.A. Marathon presents an opportunity for nearly 50 local and national charitable organizations to use L.A. Marathon events as a platform to raise money for their organization and to increase their profile in the community. Since its inception in 1987, the program has been hailed as "The Million Dollar Morning" in recognition of the million dollars raised annually and the more than 17 million dollars that has been raised to date for a number of worthwhile concerns. Runners, walkers and cyclists are encouraged to support the charities by raising per-mile pledges from friends, family and co-workers. Therefore, it is imperative that our businesses in our community support this most worth while cause.

For information on the Team HEAL Official Charity Program, contact Barbara Shields at 310-645-8347 or teamheal@comcast.net.
Marathon contact: Tracie Bruneau at 310-444-5544, tbruneau@lamarathon.com, www.lamarathon.com.

Team HEAL draws on the established excellence and resources of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic and Healthsouth Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center to deliver high quality services to inner city athletes.