Mercedes-Benz Accelerates Sharing Through 'Donation Run'

Give and Race to Be Held on the 5th of Next Month

The Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee recently awarded 150 million KRW in Give and Dream scholarships to promising youth athletes.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Mercedes-Benz GIVE campaign, known as the "donation run," is gaining widespread support. The Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee created this sharing expansion program by combining sports and donations, attracting attention by making it easy for the general public to participate, having donated 5.05 billion KRW over the past five years.

The donation run campaign, "GIVE and RACE," will be held over two days starting from the 5th of next month. Now in its 9th year, the event saw applications fill up within 10 minutes after registration opened on the 26th of last month. Established as a representative activity of the Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee, GIVE and RACE was the first donation culture expansion running event initiated by the imported car industry in 2017 to help vulnerable children and adolescents in Korea.

Since last year, due to social distancing measures, the event has been held in an untact (contactless) format under the name GIVE and RACE Virtual Run. From the first event in 2017 through the 8th event last year, the cumulative number of participants exceeded 77,000, and total donations surpassed 4.1 billion KRW.

All donations, including participation fees, are used for education and medical expenses for vulnerable children and adolescents through the social welfare foundation Children and Future Foundation. Last year, the donations were allocated to various beneficiary institutions for medical expenses such as burn treatment for children and adolescents, heart surgery, and rare incurable diseases. Donations from the event held in Busan were also delivered to local youth counseling welfare centers and social welfare centers.

The scholarship project "GIVE and DREAM," which supports vulnerable children or promising sports talents to grow into skilled individuals, was newly established in 2020. Scholarships are awarded after screening among promising talents in various fields such as soccer, baseball, taekwondo, and Ssireum, focusing on students from basic livelihood security recipients, near-poverty groups, and other low-income families. On the 24th, 50 recipients received a total of 150 million KRW. They can receive up to 3 million KRW per year to use for participating in competitions, training, purchasing sports equipment, or injury treatment. Scholarships have been awarded three times so far, with a cumulative total of 450 million KRW through this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.