Some of the members of 54Strong who participated in the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon on January 28, 2018. Photo: Facebook

Vanessa King, left, and Damien C. Grange, right, stretch after completing the Miami Marathon on January 28, 2018. Photo: Facebook

An athlete about to finish the Miami Marathon on January 28, 2018. Photo: Facebook

The VI team, 54Strong, joined some 23,000 other runners to take on the course on a rain-soaked day to raise monies for local charities following the devastation left behind by hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017.

O’Neal Webster had donated ‘#BVI strong’ wristbands to each member of the 54Strong team. The wristbands were sold by the Rotary Club of Tortola to raise funds for their recovery efforts.

It is unclear how much money was raised in total, but according to O’Neal Webster, its representative and Managing Partner Vanessa King doubled her initial fundraising target for her charity of choice, Adopt A Roof BVI, raising over $8,000 in donations from friends, colleagues, and clients—on-island, in the region, in the United States, and as far away as Hong Kong.

King, according to O’Neal Webster, said she chose Adopt A Roof BVI as her charity because its work went beyond simply rebuilding roofs—the charity’s acts restored a sense of security and dignity to those who had lost much in the hurricanes.

Team 54Strong was conceived by Martin Cooke and Melisa Johnson who were inspired to create a team of 54 runners—“one for each of the 54 VI islands”—to participate in the Miami Marathon or Half Marathon and raise funds to support hurricane recovery.