Donations in Rachel Apa’s Name Have Passed $170,000 in the Week Since Her Death

When Rachel Apa signed up for the New York City Marathon with the Parkinson’s Foundation’s Champions team, she set herself a fundraising goal of $4,000 in memory of her grandfather. She collapsed near Mile 24 in Central Park on Nov. 1 and died that night; her family says doctors told them the cause was rhabdomyolysis. Six days later, the money given in her name has passed $173,000, more than 40 times the target she set for herself.

Most of it has gone to a GoFundMe that her brother Dominic opened on Thursday to start The Rachel Apa Foundation. It brought in more than $92,000 in its first day, CBS 21 in Harrisburg reported on Friday, and by Saturday it stood at $118,163 from about 1,220 donors, against a goal of $150,000.

Her original page with the Parkinson’s Foundation had a little over $5,400 on it the Tuesday after the race. It now shows $55,348.68, and the Parkinson’s Foundation has paused donations to it at the family’s request. On that page she had written about her grandfather, who died in 2022. “I watched as the disease slowly took away the freedom to move that he once loved so much,” she wrote, as CBS 21 quoted it.

The family’s plan for the new foundation is to teach athletes about rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissue that can overwhelm the kidneys, and then to go further. “Beyond education, our long-term hope is to advocate for rapid on-course medical care at endurance races and support athletes carrying Rachel’s Spirit across finish lines everywhere,” they wrote on the fundraiser. Rachel had been treated on the course by spectators who started CPR and by race medical staff who used a defibrillator before an ambulance took her to Mount Sinai, where doctors worked on her for hours.

Bucknell University, where she played four seasons of Division I field hockey, also paid tribute. In a statement carried by CBS 21, the university called her “a four-year member and key contributor to the Bison field hockey team” and noted that she graduated in 2024 with a degree in markets, innovation and design. Her Bucknell roster page lists 17 goals and six assists across 63 games for the forward from Red Land High School, including six goals in her senior season, when she started all 17 of the team’s games.

The foundation is still being incorporated as a nonprofit, so gifts made through the GoFundMe are not tax deductible for now. According to its website, direct donations will open there once the paperwork is complete.