A Fort Worth ISD high school is hosting its second annual Positive Strides 5k Marathon this month.
The marathon will be held on October 13, starting and finishing at North Side High School.
Proceeds will help pay for the event and provide equipment for local cross-country teams. Organizer and North Side Cross-Country Coach Kelsy Daniels said she hopes to see the event become an annual race that continues to grow.
“We want to make it an annual tradition, but this is only our second year, so we are still in the beginning stages,” Daniels told The Dallas Express. “Right now, our student-athletes have to pay to enter the race. The goal is to get enough money to pay for the race itself and allow our runners to enter for free.”
Daniels said that last year’s inaugural race drew more than 90 runners in addition to spectators. Daniels said elementary, middle, and high school students will participate this year. Rufino Mendoza Elementary School is the newest campus to participate in the event.
“This year, we have finisher medals for all of the participants that have the North Side High School steer logo,” Daniels said. “This year, we will have vendors who can promote themselves and also give back to the community.”
Daniels added that the North Side mariachi group, which recently played at the State Fair, will provide entertainment.
The event was a collaborative idea between Daniels and Gabriel Arredondo, a North Side alumni who approached Daniels about putting on a race to benefit the student-athletes.
“He is an avid runner, and I am an avid runner, and we happened to be in the same running club, and he said, ‘I want to give back, let’s do a race,’ and I said, ‘Let’s do it,'” explained Daniels. “We are trying to get more of the community involved. We have parents bringing their elementary children; we have aunts and uncles, the whole family coming out.”
One of the goals of including younger runners in this year’s event is to help provide opportunities to inspire younger children to see what middle and high school students are doing, Daniels said. She added that not only is encouraging youth athletes to participate but also showing them the value of giving back to the community is important.
“Our high school kids are going over to elementary schools twice a month as a mentorship,” Daniels said. “They go and run with the little kids, we talk with them, and we create that relationship with them, and so we are getting more mentors out there bridging the gap.”
Daniels added that one goal this year is to put on a pizza party for the elementary students who participate to help encourage them to continue cross-country running.
Registration for the marathon is available online at AllEvents in Fort Worth.