Caught Caring: Anthony Edwards and Shoe4Africa
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Motherhood star Anthony Edwards is no stranger to marathons, having run the Chicago 26.2-miler three times since 1999. On Sunday he completed in his first New York City marathon, however, and crossing the finish line was momentous in more ways than one. Not only was it his first race in six years, the 47-year-old former ER actor and dad-of-four raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Shoe4Africa along the way — money that is earmarked for a pediatric teaching hospital in Kenya.
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The non-profit organization began with the goal of collecting shoes for African children, but as it has grown, its mission has expanded.
Asked by the Kenyan government to help build a hospital in the town of Eldoret, Shoe4Africa has pledged every dollar raised directly to the effort — with every donor getting their name included on a wall at the hospital.
“[It is] an actual pediatric hospital, that will be a training facility for doctors and nurses,” Anthony explained beforehand to CNN.
“A real teaching hospital [is something] we take for granted in this country. They just don’t exist in Africa, and they certainly don’t exist in pediatric medicine. I hopefully can use a little celebrity to bring attention to it.”
Anthony finished Sunday’s race in a respectable 4:08:20.
“It was good but it was so much harder than I imagined,” he later admitted. “The crowd was a big help, like [my] wings.”
In a separate interview with Runners World also conducted while he was still training for the event, Anthony admitted that no one on his 20-member team was running for personal bests, however.
“We’re running for a cause,” he explained. “We want to spread the word.”
“Running is a great, selfish thing to do. I think by nature, runners love to give back. It’s a perfect thing — I’ll give anybody $50 so I don’t have to run the marathon. I just love the spirit of it, a group of people, the idea of it, we’ll put in our four months of training and do this in the spirit of building something that has never existed before, and will have a huge impact on the health of Africa. It’s just so cool.”
Anthony is dad to son Bailey, 15, and daughters Esme, 12, Wallis, 9, and Poppy, 7, with his wife, Stila creator Jeanine Lobell.
To make a donation to Shoe4Africa, click here.
– Missy
