BALTIMORE — October is Down Syndrome Awareness month.
Now, more money will go towards Down syndrome treatment.
Jay Culotta is the man behind a lot of it.
After his daughter was diagnosed with Down syndrome he focused on raising funds to help.
The retired Wawa executive started 27 years ago, doing a run to raise funds for research and therapy.
Now, Wawa's helping him.
They donated $156,000 to the Kennedy Kreiger Institute to help launch the Hannah Rose Culotta fund, named after Culotta's daughter.
Jay says that donation has him set on a major fundraising goal.
"With this additional donation to date, the run has raised over $920,000 for the benefit of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Down syndrome clinic," Jay said.
"I'm now dedicated to reaching the $1 million mark and it sounds like we're gonna get there pretty quickly thank you. Thank you very much," Jay said.
Hannah also works at Wawa.
In honor of the family's work, the Wawa Foundation is matching an additional $50,000 in future donations.
The funds will go towards research and covering treatment for the roughly 3,000 Down syndrome patients.
