I’m running in the Philly Half Marathon in a couple of weeks, which will be my longest run, and approximately 20x farther than I was able to jog back in June. As with the Philly 10k I ran in August, I’ll be running this race as a “FundRacer” for the amazing national nonprofit with Philly roots: Back on My Feet (BOMF). BOMF runs a program which “seeks to revolutionize the way our society approaches homelessness” which starts with the member committing to 3 runs a week at 5:30am. If the member completes 90% of the runs within 30 days, BOMF helps them secure stable housing, a job, counseling, and more.
Support my new running habit and help a homeless person in Philly as they work to get back on their feet and into a stable living situation: https://give.backonmyfeet.org/Philadelphia-Marathon/alexua. I know it says I want to raise $750, and I’m just getting started, but my actual goal is to raise $2000, which is the rough cost of putting one member through the program. If I can do that, I can say that I, with the help of friends and family, funded one person’s transition from
A bit of background… I chose to use my newfound love of running to raise money for Back on My Feet at first through chance. I’ve been following BOMF for years, as my friend / amazing & awesome person / fellow Philly loud person Chris Wink was their original communications person. I always thought the idea sounded “neat”, but given that the longest runs I can remember prior to this year were to planes or away from danger, I just don’t think I “got” what made the program so valuable. And then, this past spring, I felt a strong desire to work on my body, mind, and spirit at the same time, and so I started jogging and looking around for ways to get more involved in volunteering. At the exact same time as I was starting to search, BOMF came to Zivtech for support for their website, and, well, I took it as a “sign”. Since that time I’ve run a couple times in with their morning teams (5:30AM runs are even more brutal when you have kids), attended the awesome and inspiring BOMF Philly Gala, I’m collecting shoes to help raise money, we’ve donated some pro bono work at Zivtech, and of course I’m also FundRacing.
I know this all might seem a bit much, and I know there are other charities and homeless assistance/advocacy groups out there, but take a look at these two videos featuring their members and alumni and tell me you don’t want to get involved. And don’t forget to donate!
