Over 300 runners and walkers took part in the Mercy Hospital Foundation's seventh annual Scrub Run 5K Race through Cazenovia Park on Sept. 11.

"The scrub run is a great event put on by Mercy Hospital of Buffalo," said Deanna Messinger Mercy Hospital Foundation executive director.

The run, which sees medical personal racing in their surgical garb, has grown from a group of 30 people to over 300 participants.

"The Scrub Run is an annual event that we do as a fundraiser for Mercy Hospital through our foundation every year. This is the seventh annual event," said Eddie Bratko, president of Mercy Hospital. "It's called the Scrub Run because it's a nice play on words. It is to benefit a hospital. Obviously most of our staff wear scrubs as they go through the course of their day. Whether it's a med surg nurse on the floor or somebody in the OR, scrubs are pretty much the uniform we wear. We thought it would be fun to make that the theme of our fundraiser."

Funds raised through the Scrub Run support the ministries and patient care at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo.

"Mercy Hospital is located in South Buffalo, we also have 12 additional ministries, mostly in the Southtowns," said Messinger.

"We recently purchased a neural microscope, so we do some high end stroke and brain surgery," said Bratko.

The neural microscope allows more that one surgeon to work on a patient at a time and helps the medical staff to respond to emergencies in a timely manner. The hospital also has a level 2 newborn intensive care unit.

After the race, participants were treated to a party with food, craft beer, live music with the Time Pirates and much more.

"Thank you to all our foundation board members and the foundation staff who helped put this together every year," said Bratko.

Messinger added a special thank you to the community. "The reason we (Mercy Hospital) are so successful is that we have a lot of wonderful people here in the Southtowns and South Buffalo and throughout Buffalo, New York."