Hoping to build a library for local children, two seniors put together a charity 5K for their senior thesis.
Senior speech pathology majors Alaina Hartman and Audrey Van Acker organized the Baby Steps 5K to raise money for Delaware County’s Head Start program.
“We both love running, so we came up with the idea for a 5K fund raiser,” Hartman said. “It started with our passion for speech pathology and literacy and then add in the passion for running, and we just went from there.”
The two seniors set a goal of getting at least one book to each of the kids in the 305 families, and they hoped to reach their goal with the help of the 35 runners who signed up.
They also had a donation box and held a raffle with gifts from local businesses to help raise more money for the books.
The program provides 305 local, low-income families with services such as speech therapy, social work and classes to help teach the parents to take care of their children.
The program also helps the families gain the same learning opportunities as higher income families.
The 5K wasn’t limited to students; other members of the community could participate as well.
The timed run was viewed by the participants as a group effort, not a competition, and most of them jogged or walked together.
