When Angelina Mata set her sights on the Dopey Challenge – an intense series of road races that take place over four consecutive days each January at Disney World in Orlando, Florida – she knew she was in for a rigorous training regimen.
The Dopey Challenge starts with a 5K, then a 10K and continues with a half-marathon before it finally wraps up with a full marathon.
Angelina Mata, a senior in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in this year’s Dopey Challenge at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She began training for the four-day, 48.6-mile challenge last summer while an intern with Rocket Kids in Germany.
That’s a total of 48.6 miles.
So it was convenient, in some ways, that she spent her summer in Germany through Rocket Kids. In between activities and outings with the children of military families, she was running on the ample hills in and around U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder.
“The hills really prepared me for the Dopey Challenge,” Mata said.
Mata, a senior at The University of Toledo College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is proud to have crossed the final finish line on Jan. 7 — and to have raised more than $2,000 along the way for Jar of Hope, a charity committed to finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Mata has become a champion for the cause since she connected with Jar of Hope through the Walt Disney Marathon in 2022 and met Jim Raffone, who founded the charity after his son, Jamesy, received his diagnosis at age 4.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an extremely rare and rapidly progressive childhood neuromuscular disorder that primarily affects boys. Most lose their ability to walk between the ages of 10 and 14.
“I got to know the family and hear their story,” Mata said. “It really makes you feel for people affected by this disease. I want to do everything I can to make sure every kid has a normal, happy life.”
Mata’s relationship with the charity is an extension of the heart for helping children, which led her to UToledo’s new Rocket Kids program. The program recruits and trains college students nationwide to provide quality child development and care at military bases around the world.
Mata, who graduated from Anthony Wayne High School in Whitehouse in 2021, had previously followed that heart for helping children by teaching children’s karate classes at Satori Martial Arts & Fitness Center of Maumee and volunteering to help with children’s educational programs through Mosaic Ministries of South Toledo. She jumped at the opportunity to sign up for Rocket Kids when UToledo announced the launch of the program, funded by an $11.5 million grant through the Department of Army IMCOM-Europe NAF, last year during her first semester on Health Science Campus.
“I love to travel,” Mata said. “I like to see different parts of the world, and I was excited about the opportunity to give back to the people who serve our country.”
She was among the first cohort to intern in one of four military bases in Europe through Rocket Kids.
“I worked with children in preschool, and we just had fun with them all day,” she said. “But you’re also helping these kids grow. You can see you’re making a difference.”
Mata benefited as well.
She credits the connections she cultivated with the children and their families with enhancing her patient interactions as she works toward her doctor of pharmacy degree.
Because she arrived on campus with academic credits through the College Credit Plus program at Anthony Wayne, she’s set to earn that degree ahead of many of her classmates who started in the same semester. She expects to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences in May, and her doctorate in 2026.
Her introduction to life on a military base also solidified her career plans: After her summer with Rocket Kids, she wants to use her degree as a pharmacist for the U.S. Air Force.
“Angelina embodies what it means to be a Rocket,” said Dr. Sammy Spann, vice president of student affairs, dean of students and program director for Rocket Kids. “She greets challenges with an adventurous spirit and determination. She trusted a new program and committed to 12 weeks of international service working with United States military families.
“She again displayed her Rocket spirit by committing to intense training to be able to complete a race supporting families in need. I am proud of the work Angelina has done to serve others and how she has grown through the process.”
Mata’s decision to hit the hills around the base on her off hours wasn’t unprecedented.
She had run at Anthony Wayne and kept her miles up less formally when she began at UToledo. The Disney lover had signed up for the Disney marathon in 2022 and ran the Disney half-marathon in 2023 for Jar of Hope.
These earlier experiences led her toward the pinnacle challenge of running 48.6 miles in the 2024 Dopey Challenge and raising more than $2,000 for Jar of Hope.
“It was pretty incredible to actually achieve,” said Mata, who wore a Rocket Kids T-shirt on her first race day, in a nod to her training regimen in Germany. “I didn’t know my body was capable of running so much.”
