3rd Annual Walking With Purpose!

It’s October, and at CIS of Kalamazoo we start walking…walking for Kalamazoo students! We have officially launched our 3rd annual Walking With Purpose challenge. The goal of 12,000 miles is symbolic of the 12,000+ students throughout the schools supported by CIS. Each mile has meaning because each mile honors a student who is taking the steps necessary to walk through the door to a brighter future.

Thanks to a Walking With Purpose volunteer planning committee of 10 members, we have built on our existing initiative by incorporating a few changes like a weekly mission mile, additional fundraising options, and more. We have maintained the overall objective of hosting a fun way to keep active while, at the same time, raising awareness and funds to support students in our community by supporting the vital mission of Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo (CIS).

As of this posting, Walking with Purpose has 23 team captains who are currently working on building their teams. So far, there are about 162 participants. Not involved and want to be? There is still time and several ways to support Kalamazoo students during this month-long event. Check out the Walking with Purpose page on the CIS website to find out how you can join in, as a team captain, individual participant, guest walking, or donate to a supporters miles.

New this year, we have partnered up with Kalamazoo Nature Center to host a Cider and Scenery event to help fundraising efforts. The painting event is on October 19th at 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. Tickets are available through this link for $40 and all proceeds can be directed to a Walking With Purpose fundraiser’s team.

Working together as a community to walk 12,000 miles over the course of October may seem like a lot, but spread out among many, we can make it to the finish line.

Walking with Purpose is presented by Lake Michigan Credit Union and supporting sponsors: Allkins Family Foundation, Athletico Physical Therapy, CWS Financial Advisors, Eaton Corporation, FEMA Corporation, Fifth Third Bank, and Old National Bank.

This year, we also reached out to a few businesses to help provide weekly prizes, team captain gifts, and the food & beverages for our mission mile walks. Thank you to: Gazelle Sports, Graphix 2 Go, Inc., Husted’s Farm Market, Imperial Beverage, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Rose Wellbeing, and Sawall Health Foods for being in-kind supporters!

We’ll leave you with some pics from the first “Mission Mile Walk” and kick off that was held yesterday at Woodward School. Thank you to the staff at Woodward School for hosting us, Mia from Rose Wellbeing for joining us help stretch, Imperial Beverage for donating the water, and Sawall Health Foods for donating the trail mix ingredients. Thank you to everybody who joined last night!