Closing

Someone is in a tougher race than you right now.

Thank You. After More Than 20 Years, Medals4Mettle Is Closing.

For more than twenty years, Medals4Mettle has carried one simple idea from finish line to bedside: an earned endurance medal can become a message of compassion.

In 2005, founder Dr. Steve Isenberg finished a marathon and placed his medal around the neck of a dear friend battling cancer. That gift honored courage the racecourse could not measure. From that moment, athletes across the country, and later around the world, began sending their half-marathon, marathon, and triathlon medals so we could attach our ribbon and award them to children and adults facing illness, trauma, and other life challenges they did not choose.

Volunteers made it possible. There was no paid administration. Chapters worked with children’s hospitals, HopeKids, Ronald McDonald House, camps, and frontline heroes. Tens of thousands of medals became a human connection: I see your mettle. Keep going.

We are heartbroken to share that, due to a lack of funding, Medals4Mettle must close.

The medals still arrive. The requests still come. The need has never been in question. What we can no longer sustain are the costs of ribbons, shipping, insurance, and the quiet infrastructure that holds a volunteer network together. Without the resources to operate responsibly, we cannot continue.

We close with gratitude, even as the work remains unfinished in our hearts.

To every runner who mailed a medal instead of hanging it on a wall: thank you.

To every coordinator who walked hospital halls with a box of hardware and a softer message: thank you.

To every family who let a stranger’s finish line become part of their child’s story: thank you.

To every donor who believed kindness without borders was worth funding: thank you.

Please do not send additional medals or monetary gifts. We can no longer accept, process, or award them.

If you have an open request or a medal already in transit, please contact info@medals4mettle.org. We will do what we can to close our remaining commitments with care.

The race we honored was never ours. It belonged to the patients, caregivers, and athletes who chose to share the medals they earned. That spirit does not end because an organization must.

Keep running. Keep noticing who is running a harder course. Keep finding ways to say: your courage counts.

With love and sorrow,

The volunteers of Medals4Mettle

Indianapolis, Indiana

A 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 35-2260007

© 2026 Medals4Mettle.