Mary Moreno grew up in the Chicagoland area and attended high school at Thornton Fractional North High School in Calumet City, Illinois. She continued her education by obtaining an associate’s degree from South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois and a bachelor’s degree from Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Indiana.
After she finished her schooling, she moved to Northwest Indiana but worked at the University of Chicago as an operations manager for several years until she decided to start her own business.
“I started my business called Button What, which works with local businesses to provide items such as, buttons, magnets, t-shirts, and coffee mugs,” said Mary.
Along with being a small business owner in the area, Mary was also very involved in the local running community.
“I have been an active runner in the local running community for the past six to seven years. A few years ago, I was approached by the National Association of Letter Carriers Union out of Schererville and was asked to host the annual muscular dystrophy association fundraiser event,” stated Mary.
Since Mary is very active within the running community in the area, she decided to host a running event as the fundraiser.
“In 2014, I created the Pony Express Relay for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which is a ¼ marathon relay race where teams of three people get together and make up silly team names to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.”
Mary is also on the board for the Calumet Region Striders for about three years now and is also the race director for their annual race, The Buckley Five Miler, which is held every July at the Buckley Homestead in Lowell.
Out of hosting the charity events that Mary was doing, she began to see a future with helping those who also host running events, which is when she decided to start another business that focused on just that.
“I kind of saw a gap in the running community and a lot of local race directors were people that were appointed by nonprofits or different charity groups and really did not have a lot of experience organizing events like that, which can be really challenging for people who are not really sure what they are doing. Most of the charities, schools, and churches have their heart in the right place by trying to fundraise money for their organization. So a lot of times, first-time event directors are putting together these races with good intentions, but end up losing money, or not really raising enough for all the hard work that has been put into it,” said Mary.
Mary wanted to help out with this to make sure these charity groups and nonprofit organization that is hosting running fundraisers are putting on fun and successful events.
“In August of this year, I created my company, Race Rebel. Race Rebel works with local nonprofits and charity groups to help them organize and execute successful fundraiser running events. We offer everything from the chip timing services, custom event t-shirts, and custom race awards and medals. With those aspects, we try to get really unique and offer different things that runners do not see at other races to try and put on an event that sticks out in a really competitive market,” stated Mary.
Not only does Mary add unique aspects to running events, but she also provides advice to race coordinators planning running fundraiser events.
“We also compile free race director information, whether or not they use our services, as a guide to help them through the process. This helps them figure out what runners are looking for so they can host a fun, safe, and successful running event.”
Because Mary’s businesses overlap with creating custom products, she is in the process of dissolving Button What and just focusing on Race Rebel.
“Through Button What I got the experience of creating and designing t-shirts and awards, and I noticed that most of my business was coming from the running community, which is when I decided to start Race Rebel and just focus on that, especially since it is very difficult to run two businesses at once.”
Mary knew from a young age that she wanted to be a business owner. Her main goal with running her business, Race Rebel, is to help local nonprofits and charities succeed in their fundraising events that they host.
“I’ve always wanted to be a business owner for as long as I can remember, but I was never really interested in doing what everyone else was doing, I have always just wanted to identify gaps. I love Valparaiso because the community is wonderful, and I am so glad that I decided to move here and create my business to work with local nonprofits and charities. It is just as beneficial to me as it is to them to be able to see what all these organizations do and how they give back to the community.”
If you are interested in using Race Rebel for your next fundraiser event or would like to learn more about it, click here!