Gabby Gobbler 5K to step out on Thanksgiving

To date, the Get Well Gabby Foundation has raised nearly $100,000 and after the Gabby Gobbler Thanksgiving day race at Irish Eyes, organizers hope to be thousands of dollars and 3.1 miles closer to a cure or pediatric cancer.

In the years since they lost their youngest daughter, Gabriella, to brain cancer in 2011 at 5 years old, John and Carolynn Vogel founded the Get Well Gabby Foundation to raise money for pediatric cancer patients and their families as well as funding research for a cure.

The second annual Gabby Gobbler is slated to take off from Irish Eyes at 9:30 a.m., Thanksgiving Day. Last year, the race attracted nearly 600 runners for a competitive race followed by food, drinks and prizes.

Gabby's mother, Carolynn, said after her daughter lost a three-month battle with an aggressive, invasive brain tumor, the family wants to keep her memory alive and continue the fight against pediatric cancer.

The resulting Get Well Gabby Foundation has hosted fundraisers in Pennsylvania and, more recently, at the Delaware beaches, where the Vogel family relocated after Gabby lost her battle with cancer.

Most of the fundraising has gone on in southeast Pennsylvania after the foundation was launched in 2012, Carolynn said, but after the first Gabby Gobbler last year in Lewes and a subsequent skim boarding competition, she said the family's new home state is showing support for their cause.

The support they have received through combined fundraising efforts has allowed the Get Well Gabby Foundation to continue to support a five-year, $125,000 grant for AI DuPont Children's Hospital.

They recently visited the hospital to deliver their second-to-last installment of the grant for the oncology department and hosted a pizza party, where they also distributed as many as 400 new books to patients at the hospital.

"The important piece is we are trying to help kids directly in our community who are fighting childhood cancer," Carolynn said. "It's not rare if it happens to you."

Same-day registration for the Gabby Gobbler will be available at Irish Eyes in Lewes beginning at 8:30 a.m., Nov. 26. For more information about the Get Well Gabby Foundation, go to www.getwellgabby.org.