r More Spanish Fork kids are running in the “Kids Marathon Program” thanks to a donation by the Spanish Fork Active and Healthy Community Board this week.
The program encourages kids to run the length of a marathon over the course of a couple of months. They complete the last part of the marathon length at an official race.r“This program starts in the schools and ends in a race where kids earn an actual race medal, T-shirt and gain a race experience.” Says Susan Chapman of the Spanish Forks Active and Healthy Movement.
Bethany Brown, who started the Kids Marathon program 8 years ago, has implemented it in several local schools including Rees and Sierra Bonita and hopes to expand it to more Spanish Fork schools in the future.
The program is free to all students and any student can run with the program at the school. The race entry at the end, however, costs fifteen dollars. The end event is not mandatory but provides an additional experience for runners to participate in.
“Bethany has worked hard at finding donors and sponsors for the low-income kids in her program” City Councilman Mike Mendenhall added “With our donation of $2,500, more kids can participate in the official race event at the end and earn the T-shirt, medal and have the experience that acts as a capstone to the kids marathon running program.”
“We had originally discussed having these funds go towards a 5k or other race but this program has a deeper outreach into the schools and community than a single event could ever have.” Chapman continued “This is a great use of funds for our Active and Healthy Grant which we received from Intermountain Health Care and Utah League of Cities and Towns. The purpose of this grant it to promote a healthy lifestyle. This accomplishes that purpose.”
For more information about the Kids Marathon Running Program go to runpaysoncanyon.com
