WHAT: “Chipotle Mile 2010,” a fund-raiser for the Project Haiti student group at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Competitors take part in a series of burrito-themed competitions, like the 4×100-meter burrito baton relay and the burrito toss. The events are comical, but the intent is serious: Proceeds benefit the medical students’ work in Haiti, including their upcoming medical mission trip to the earthquake-ravaged country.
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: On the campus of the UT Health Science Center, at the track outside the Spectrum Athletic Club at Babcock Road and Merton Minter Street.
WHO: Students from the UT Health Science Center’s School of Medicine who are active in the Project Haiti student group. Project Haiti works in partnership with Project Medishare, a nonprofit that works to bring quality health care to Haiti. Project Haiti receives support from the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the UT Health Science Center.
Project Haiti raises money for various projects, including medical mission trips. Days before a major earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, Project Haiti students and faculty advisers passed through the Haitian capital on their way home from a medical mission in the country’s Central Plateau region. Another medical mission is planned for this spring.
Project Haiti also raises money for other endeavors, including a Project Medishare-run nutrition center in Thomonde, which produces a nutritional supplement calls Akamil that helps ward off malnutrition in poor families. The center also includes a treatment center for advanced childhood malnutrition.
NOTES: Food for the event was donated by Chipotle Mexican Grill. Spectators are welcome, and food also will be provided for them.
The registration fee for competitors is $15 per person and $50 for a team of four. That price includes a T-shirt and burrito for each person. To register call Jodi O’Leary at (210) 567-2654.
Donations to Project Haiti also can be made by visiting http://www.texashumanities.org/haiti.cfm.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 25,600 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.