A Florida father running a 50-kilometer ultramarathon in all 50 states over 50 consecutive days brought his cross-country campaign to St. Louis's Forest Park on Tuesday, staging a free community run before continuing on toward Jackson, Mississippi. Brady McDonald, a husband and father of two, made stop 47 of his 50-stop journey at the park's Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor & Education Center parking lot, using the park's dual-surface recreational pathway for the morning event.
McDonald's campaign, called Zero to 100 Wishes, started at Walt Disney World in Orlando on July 25, 2026, and is scheduled to wrap up in Honolulu on September 12, 2026, according to Make-A-Wish. The effort requires him to run 31.07 miles every single day for 50 straight days without a break, crossing the contiguous United States before flying to Alaska and Hawaii to finish. As First Alert 4 reports, McDonald and his family are on the road specifically to raise funds for children fighting critical illnesses.
The scale of the physical challenge invites comparison to one of ultrarunning's most famous feats. In 2006, ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes ran 50 standard marathons — 26.2 miles each — in 50 states over 50 days, a run that helped establish the multi-state endurance format as a fundraising vehicle, according to Outside Magazine. McDonald's daily distance adds nearly five more miles on top of that, every day, for the same 50-day span.
A Personal Crisis Turned Into a Cause
McDonald wasn't always an endurance athlete. Three years before this campaign, he had just quit drinking and won his first 50-mile race when he was hospitalized with exertional rhabdomyolysis, a serious medical crisis, per the Cape Coral Breeze. That hospitalization redirected his running away from personal achievement and toward charity fundraising, and he went on to complete extreme ultramarathons including the 240-mile Moab 240 before designing the 50-state challenge.
The cause is personal for the whole family. McDonald's wife, Kristy, received a Make-A-Wish trip herself at age 15 after losing her arm in a boating accident, the outlet notes. She and daughters Kylie, 12, and Lexi, 5, are traveling with him in two RVs sponsored by Camping World, while a production crew films the trek for a 50-part daily YouTube series documenting each stop.
Fundraising Momentum Builds Toward Honolulu
McDonald had already raised more than $300,000 for Make-A-Wish through prior ultra-running efforts before this campaign began, and by Day 33 of the current tour he had passed 1,000 total miles run and funded 33 wishes, according to CBS 2 Boise. By the time he reached St. Louis, per McDonald, he and his family had raised more than $800,000 toward their $1 million goal.
That target lines up directly with what it costs to grant a wish. Make-A-Wish estimates the average cash cost of granting a single wish to a child with a critical illness at roughly $10,000, meaning McDonald's $1 million goal translates to funding about 100 individual wishes, according to Make-A-Wish. About 77% of granted wishes involve travel, and nearly half partner with Disney.
Why the Wishes Matter Medically
Research backs up the idea that a wish is more than a nice gesture. A 2022 Make-A-Wish Wish Impact Study, which surveyed 3,411 parents, wish alumni, and physicians, found that 91% of parents reported seeing their child's wish improve survival odds, and 91% considered the wish experience a necessary component of medical treatment, per PR Newswire.
The need is constant and nationwide. Roughly 27,000 children in the United States are diagnosed annually with a qualifying critical illness, meaning a child becomes eligible for a wish every 34 minutes, according to Make-A-Wish. Children between 2½ and under 18 who are diagnosed with critical medical conditions qualify for referral.
Open to Anyone Who Wants to Join
Every stop on McDonald's itinerary includes a free Sunrise Wish Run open to the public, letting community members walk, jog, or simply cheer without needing any formal running background. Participants at each stop can join for a mile, a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or the full 50K alongside McDonald.
Forest Park itself made a fitting backdrop for Stop 47, covering 1,300 acres and featuring a dedicated dual-surface pathway built for both pedestrians and cyclists, according to Make-A-Wish. From St. Louis, McDonald's next stop takes him to Jackson, Mississippi, as he continues the countdown toward his final run in Honolulu.
