$5,000 for Pennsylvania Parks

Charity Bib Interview with Teddy Fischer, Charity Bib runner at this year’s Zion Half

At Wander Project we love sharing the inspiring stories of every day runners, turning their next run into support for their favorite cause. We reach out to Teddy Fisher for our first 2025 interview. He’s running Vacation Races’ Zion Half next month and decided to run it as a “Your Choice” charity bib. This means, he gets to pick any registered 501c3 to fundraise for. At the time of writing, Teddy had already raised over $5,000 for his charity. Keep reading to hear more of his story and see why he’s passionate about his local parks.

How did you select Vacation Race’s Zion Half for your run?

For context, this is my very first half marathon and until July of this year, running a half marathon was something that I never even thought twice about. I never had a desire to as running was probably one of my least favorite activities until this point in my life. However, I was preparing to apply for a fellowship program in the area where I live, which would give me money to pursue personal and professional development. It was important to plan something that would be challenging, stretch my boundaries, and help me to grow. Running a half marathon was the first thing I thought of, because it was just never something I thought I would ever be able or want to do. My wife previously completed the Glacier Half Marathon a few years ago and told me about these races. We also love traveling to National Parks across the country and love the Zion/Utah area. If I was going to do this, I knew I wanted to have a beautiful view on the run and felt like Zion was a great place to hold it. The course also happened to be one of the least difficult of the ones available, with only 700 feet of elevation gain and a relatively low elevation to run at with the course below 4,000ft. I felt like it was the course that was going to best set me up for success to finish given my low running ability at the start of this journey.

Could you tell us more about why you chose to do a charity bib? How did you choose York County Parks?

I did not know that a charity bib was an option until I went to register for the race, but I immediately felt like it was a great opportunity to turn this journey into more than just a personal one. I work for the York County Parks department as the Assistant Director, so this organization is obviously very immersed in my day to day life. But beyond that, I believe in their mission to provide recreational opportunities and protect open space within York County, Pennsylvania. I was born and raised in York County and spent time as a kid in many of the parks that I now work in. If someone had not preserved and protected them before I was born, then they would not be here for me to enjoy as a kid and now as an adult and for generations to come. By raising money for the parks, I am hoping to have a small part in doing the same by contributing to protection of these lands and more to follow. Last year, the York County Parks Foundation Charitable Trust where this money will be donated to, was able to purchase the first piece of land that will eventually become a new York County Park. Money donated here helps to support land acquisition projects like this and protect open space, support park projects and development, and support programs and recreational opportunities for the public. 

What has your fundraising journey looked like?

I started fundraising as soon as I signed up for the charity bib back in July. I focused on promoting the fundraiser and the run on my social media channels. The fundraiser started out slow, but thankfully some friends and family were able to help start the momentum and it began to take off. I did my best to document my running and training journey to share the story as best as possible. Once I began sharing more of the story and trying to connect people to the why, the fundraising seemed to take off and donations steadily came in each time I posted. I was also fortunate to have one of the local news stations pick up the story and a running podcast as well which both helped to get the word out to more people. My goal is to raise at least $5,000 but ideally even more than that to maximize the amount of money to the Parks. 

Anything else you would like to share?

This journey has been very challenging but very rewarding along the way. I have learned a lot throughout it and my confidence has grown through it as I pushed myself beyond what I thought I was capable of. I feel like while I am in better shape than I was in the beginning, a lot of the battle was a mental one. Once I started to believe and prove to myself that I could, I was able to go further and further on my runs and am currently up to over 7 miles of running without stopping and when I started, I could barely run a 1/4 of a mile. I am looking forward to the last few weeks of training and can’t wait for the race on March 1st!