In addition to mentoring, I began running in the Flying Pig relay with my friend and fellow mentor, K.K. along with a couple of our mentees to help raise money for their camp trips.
Starting a 5k to support a mission was something I had dreamed of doing since college. In 2015, 11 years after graduating college, 3 years after getting married to my amazing husband, Mark, and moving to Hamilton, and one year after attending YoungLives camp, I shared my dream with K.K. Starting a race on Thanksgiving in Hamilton, so I didn’t need to get up so early to drive to Cincinnati to live out my long-standing tradition of running on Thanksgiving morning seemed like the perfect fit.
And so, 5 years ago, we mapped out a course in my neighborhood that I love, Highland Park. Thirty runners came out for our inaugural event, and we raised $100 in donations for the ministry. Skip forward to 2019, 1,101 participants and over 100 volunteers came together for our 5k, which has now become a Thanksgiving Day tradition for many families and friends.