Support Gunny Pearl surpasses original goal

More than six hundred runners and walkers gathered in Hugh MacRae Park Sunday to raise money for an injured Marine. A group of UNCW nursing students came together to support a classmate whose husband was critically injured while serving in Afghanistan. They organized the Support Gunny Pearl 5K walk/run to raise money to benefit the Pearl family. 'Gunny' Eden Pearl is currently in intensive care at a facility in Texas. Organizers were overwhelmed with the support. They said they hoped to bring in around twenty thousand dollars. Originally they were shooting for more like five or ten thousand, so they were pleased just to have surpassed that. All of the money raised at the walk will go directly to benefit the Pearl family. Many of the runners were fellow Marines, who were stationed alongside Pearl at Camp Lejeune.