With the donations from Freed to Run 3.0 counted, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is now nearly halfway to its goal of creating a $2.25 million endowment for the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership, having raised $1,035,000, including Baptist Health’s 125% match.

“I’m so thankful for the broad community support that has made this possible,” said Gunster’s Mike Freed, who on the final day of the 2019 event ran his 18th Freed to Run marathon in three years. “The involvement of the Jaguars Foundation, Florida Blue, the Jax Chamber, Community First Credit Union, Jacksonville University, and the UNF School of Music really shows that the appeal of this cause goes well beyond the legal community.”

Three years into his five-year program to raise money to support a $2.25 million endowment at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, attorney Mike Freed, founder of Freed to Run, has passed the $1 million mark.

Freed to Run, a daily marathon run for six consecutive days, starts at the state Supreme Court in Tallahassee and ends at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville.

The run stops each day at county courthouses along the route.

When Freed crossed the finish line Dec. 20 at the Duval County Courthouse, the donations to date totaled $1,035,000, including a match from the Baptist Health Foundation.

Mike Freed will be the first to tell you, he doesn't run at the fastest pace. But his strides are making big impacts in the First Coast community.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The exponential growth of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s largest fundraiser, Freed to Run, will get a boost this year from three newly appointed co-chairs of the event: Darnell Smith, Florida Blue’s market president for North Florida; Eric Krall, mortgage sales manager with Community First Credit Union; and Ryan M. Ludwick, an attorney with Fisher, Tousey, Leas & Ball.

The trio will work to attract more sponsors and relay teams, with Smith focusing on the health-care community, Krall on the business community, and Ludwick on the legal community and related industries.

All proceeds from the Dec. 15-20 Capitol to Coast six-marathon relay series will go toward an endowment for the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership and will be matched at 125% by Baptist Health. The NFMLP provides civil legal aid to pediatric patients and their families to ensure they have safe and sanitary housing, as well as access to health care, educational accommodations, and other needed services.

One September day in 2017, the foundation of Marckly Charles’ world collapsed.

His widowed mother died at age 50 of a heart ailment, leaving him head of the household and parent figure for his three younger siblings. He had no relatives to help out.

Charles was 20.

“It was tough,” he said. “I didn’t know where to go or who to reach out to.”

Charles had a longtime goal — becoming a nurse — which kept him centered after his mother’s death. He and his eldest sister worked, and he paid the mortgage and other bills and kept the family steered straight ahead. But he encountered legal obstacles when he tried on his own to gain custody of his younger siblings, get his mother’s estate settled and obtain public benefits for the family. He started saving money for an attorney to help him navigate.

FLORIDA BAR Freed to Run teams gathered in front of the Baker County Courthouse for the last of six consecutive marathons through which Jacksonville attorney Mike Freed of Gunster and 19 teams of runners raised nearly $300,000 for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid (JALA) and the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership (NFMLP).