Running into seven figures: Project Youth OC reaches $1 million raised through OC Marathon partnership
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Arlene Garcia used to run back and forth between two jobs.
OK, she would technically drive to get to the pharmacy and the bank. The Santa Ana native wasn’t happy, though, and she wondered about her future.
“I was really struggling and thinking, what am I going to do for the future?” Garcia said. “What is my goal here, working two jobs, having no time for school at that time because I was working both the jobs?”
One day, in 2021, she got a call from someone at Jones Day, the Irvine-based law firm she had interned at a decade earlier as a high school student through Project Youth Orange County’s Project Self program.
Her foot was in the door. This weekend, her feet will be firmly on the concrete as she runs through Newport Beach and Costa Mesa during the marathon, which starts near Fashion Island.
Garcia, now 32, no longer has to run between jobs. She’s running the 5K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday at the Hoag OC Marathon, while helping Project Youth OC hit a significant milestone.
The Santa Ana-based nonprofit, founded in 1981 as the philanthropic arm of the Orange County Bar Foundation, will reach $1 million in money raised to support local youth through a long-standing partnership with the OC Marathon that spans 22 years.
The initiative, known as the Road to $1 Million, supports funding programs focused on behavioral intervention, youth diversion and access to education and career pathways.
Laura Marcum, Project Youth OC executive director, said there are 325 runners lacing up their sneakers to support Project Youth OC this weekend, including Garcia and her team. Marcum, who said she is not a runner herself, is nevertheless running the half marathon.
“I love the high-level community aspect,” she said. “We’re creating true system change. It’s Hoag Health Systems, it’s Orange County Marathon, it’s PYOC. That’s what happens when corporations and community groups all come together. It would not be possible if we didn’t have those names and that support also backing us and our mission. This is what Orange County needs to be able to thrive, partnerships like this. There’s always more that can be done when we work together.”
Garcia believes that to be true. Growing up in a low-income family of seven with two parents who worked the night shift, she was proactive and applied for the Project Self internship in 2011, heading into her senior year at Saddleback High School. She said she was nervous at first, but the Jones Day employees made her feel welcome.
She returned in 2021, and last December she was promoted to a legal support special assistant, continuing to work her way up to a legal secretary position.
This partnership has helped her career and also sparked a running habit with a group from Jones Day. Last year, Garcia ran the full OC Marathon.
Hoag OC Marathon director Gary Kutscher, a Huntington Beach resident, said that Project Youth OC has been with the race since the very beginning. He always encourages people to run races for a charity or nonprofit.
“It makes the race greater than them just going and running 13 or 26 miles,” Kutscher said. “And I can’t think of a better team to do it than Project Youth OC. The fact that they’re reaching $1 million just shows their commitment to what they’ve been doing for all of these years.”
Project Youth OC also staffs what Kutscher calls the most difficult water station on the whole marathon course — the first one, at Mile 2.
With the current running boom, the marathon, half marathon and 5K have all been sold out for weeks. Kutscher said the three races will total about 20,000 runners, with more than 6,000 expected for the kids run on Saturday morning.
Garcia, who now lives in Garden Grove, is more than happy to be in that group. It feels good for her to give back to the nonprofit that helped her back when she was a teenager, a path that now continues to shape her future today. Project Youth OC serves more than 1,500 youth and their families a year, Marcum said.
Garcia said she enjoys when the high school interns come into the office now, because she gets to pay it forward by mentoring them.
“I think it’s amazing that they’re continuing to still help kids, you know, and give them the opportunity that I had,” Garcia said. “I love seeing that, especially my work contributing to that and being a part of it, Team Jones Day for this. It’s amazing that they want to help out kids that want a brighter future.”
