On May 7th, the first annual TJ Martell Derby Bed Race took place in downtown Nashville on a perfect spring day between the Bridgestone Plaza and the Omni Nashville Hotel on 5th Avenue.
Many local businesses gathered to help support this worthy cause on the same day as the famed Kentucky Derby. Teams included CAA, Dunkin’ Donuts, JackFM, Regions and many more!
Each team came up with a fun theme including costumes to wear, built a bed to race with, participated in a parade prior to start of race, and then teams took turns in heats racing with their beds by having 4 team members push with one person riding on the bed to the finish line up 5th Avenue. Winners were selected not only for fastest team of the day, but those teams that demonstrated “Technical Ingenuity,” “Best Decorated”, and the “Best in Spirit” were also crowned.
One of the stand out teams of the day due to creativity, enthusiasm, and amount of money raised for the cause was the CAA (Creative Artists Agency) team aka Pirates of the CAArribean, which was comprised of 6 team members including team captain, Jacque Shelton. The team managed to raise $4,822 for the TJ Martell Foundation going towards cancer research.
Read Jacque Shelton’s story about why she supports this cause below.
Jacque Shelton’s story:
Approximately every 3 minutes one person in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer. In 2015 new cases of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma accounted for nearly 10 percent of the estimated 1,658,370 new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States.
When I was 9 years old, my dad was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Thanks to advances in medical research he has been able to keep his health under control through various treatments for the last 15 years. This year, he will undergo a bone marrow transplant. We hope that this procedure will allow him to finally live cancer free.
Many of us are affected by cancer to some degree and it is extremely difficult to watch someone you love face something so painful. My dad surviving this illness has been such a big part of my life and it has led me to be incredibly passionate about finding a cure.
About CAA:
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles, California with offices in CAA has offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Nashville, London, Beijing, St. Louis, Stockholm, and Mumbai.
About TJ Martell Foundation:
It began with a promise I made to my dying son.
In 1973, my son, T.J. Martell, was a high school student battling leukemia. He asked me to raise a million dollars for cancer research so that “no one else will have to experience what I am going through.” Although I had no fundraising experience, I agreed.
Two years later, T.J. died at the age of nineteen, and that put my promise in cement. Soon after, I was joined by many of my friends in the music industry like Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington to hold a fundraiser at Buddy Rich’s nightclub in New York. We raised $50,000 and the T.J. Martell Foundation was born.
Over the years, we have kept the Foundation’s roots deep in the music industry and hundreds of volunteers have worked passionately with our staff to raise more than $270 million for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research which has been successfully leveraged into several billion dollars in additional funding from larger funding sources. We are proud of our long history and our reputation for innovation in fundraising and the research we support.
Tony Martell, Founder and Chairman
About TJ Martell Derby Bed Race:
Nashville’s Downtown Derby Bed Race is a competition where teams build and decorate their own “beds” to race up 5th Avenue to Bridgestone Plaza all in support of cancer research. Teams that raise the most money can earn “head starts” on race day. The winning team will be presented with a Trophy at a post-race ceremony at Bridgestone Plaza. Teams that demonstrate “Technical Ingenuity,” “Best Decorated” and the “Best in Spirit” will also be crowned.
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