Coverage – Boston Globe
Sharon resident Drudys Ledbetter is running her second consecutive Boston Marathon on Monday, raising $25,000 for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a Boston nonprofit that supports families affected by murder, trauma, and grief.
Her motivation is deeply personal — her brother, Wolf Ruben Valmond, was shot and killed outside a bar in Georgia in December 2019 at just 37 years old. Ledbetter says that unlike last year, when she felt she was running for her brother, this year she feels like she’s running with him, describing it as a new way for the two of them to connect as siblings.
The funds she’s raising will support the Peace Institute’s new headquarters being built in Dorchester, which she hopes will serve as a “pillar of peace” for the community through programming for children and families. She is also captaining the institute’s first-ever four-member charity marathon team.
Ledbetter, a nurse and founder of the nonprofit Project Destigmatize Healthcare, is deeply connected to Boston’s gun violence crisis, recalling witnessing shootings and attending funerals for teenagers growing up in the city. She emphasized that many victims’ families are left carrying grief indefinitely, noting that half of Boston’s crimes go unsolved.
She is a member of Heartbreak Hill Running Company and trains with their weekly long runs in Newton.
