hey there! Thank you for visiting my fundraising page! My name is Blake Roberson and I a resident of Virginia Beach. I am a husband, a firefighter, father of 2 and someone who has enjoyed getting back on my fitness journey. I have chosen to run my first 1/2 marathon and decided to make the race something bigger than myself. I could have easily paid the $99 registration fee and just continued on with my day, but I decided to do something more to support a cause that is near and dear to the hearts of my wife and some great friends of ours. With that being said I have decided to take a "free" registration from the "Organization for Autism Research" that is located in Arlington, Virginia. While I have elected not to take the easy road and pay the registration fee, I have pledged to raise $750 for the Organization for Autism Research. With the work I will put in and the help from you all I hope to raise this $750 in name of our little buddy Braden. 

For those of you who do and do not know me, Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that has a special place in my families’ heart. My wife has been working with kids with Autism for 9 years. The first 8 years were as a speech therapist with a local hospital and she grew to truly love helping these children. 3 years ago she decided to further advance her education and become a BCBA so she could provide in home therapy to kids with Autism. Needless to say ASD is a daily topic of conversation in our home and I have grown to have a compassion for these kids over the years. This compassion would become much stronger when some great friends of ours son received a diagnosis. Their little man Braden and our little man Brantley are 2 months apart and are great buddies so needless to say we spend a lot of time with them. Watching them go through the process of receiving a diagnosis and learning what all that entails was a very touching experience. Their family has truly rocked it out of the park since receiving their diagnosis and have embraced it with everything they have. Watching them succeed and watching their little boy grow and progress every day is so touching and really proves that the research that goes into Autism is real, and needed. I wanted to give back and show them they have support along the way.  The charity I have chosen is a very high ranked and 87 cents of each dollar is put directly into the cause.   If you are able please consider donating to this rapidly growing disorder.   Feel free to check out their page to learn more if you are interested.