BMW Dallas Marathon Festival and Dallas ISD partnered last week to host a kickoff event for the ONCOR Kid’s Race.
The 20th annual Kid’s Race sponsored by ONCOR will be held at Dallas City Hall Plaza on December 9 at 11 a.m. The event is free for all Dallas ISD students to participate and will include a 5K, a 10K, a five-person 5K team challenge, and a 100-yard dash.
The kickoff event for the upcoming race was hosted at the Charles Rice Learning Center, just south of the Wheatley Place neighborhood. Former mayor of Dallas and race founder Laura Miller told The Dallas Express that she started the ONCOR-sponsored race in 2003 after she saw a magazine ranking Dallas as one of the most obese cities in the nation.
The race is meant to combat the ongoing obesity crisis.
“I had been introduced to running by my school coach when I was young and it changed my life,” said Miller. “I became a runner and 50 years later, I’m still running, so I thought, why don’t we do this for all DISD kids?”
The Dallas-Fort Worth area ranks No.26 on WalletHub’s list of most overweight and obese cities in the United States in 2023.
Texas has the eighth-highest rate of childhood obesity in the United States, with 20.3% of children ages 10-17 classified as obese in 2019-20, more than 4% over the national rate of 16.2% for the same period, according to a State of Childhood Obesity report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The kickoff event featured appearances by mascots from the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, Frisco RoughRiders, FC Dallas, and the Texas Rangers. Dallas City Council Member Tennell Atkins (District 8) and Dallas ISD Director of STEM Health & Physical Education Lisa Whitaker were also present.
Students at the event enjoyed music, obstacle courses, and jump ropes provided by ONCOR.
Miller explained that in past iterations of the event, 40 to 50 pairs of running shoes were given to children in need. However, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the race, 450 pairs of shoes were given away — enough for the entire student body at the Charles Rice Learning Center.
Shoebacca, a local footwear company based in Irving, donated the shoes. The Dallas Express attempted to reach out to Ryan Schlachter, president of Shoebacca, but did not receive any comment by press time.
Persons interested in participating in December’s race can register through the BMW Dallas Marathon Festival website.
