Community Stepping Up Support for Kalamazoo Students

You may have noticed more and more people walking about our community lately. That’s because it’s October and Walking with Purpose is underway for the second official year in a row!

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) is what this month-long challenge is all about.

As of this posting, Walking with Purpose has 31 team captains who are currently working on building their teams. So far, there are about 185 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, a team participant, an individual walker, or sponsor miles by making a donation.

Walking with Purpose has grown from two school teams last year—El Sol Elementary and Woodward School for Technology & Research—to five school teams composed of school and CIS staff. Joining El Sol and Woodward are Loy Norrix High School, Linden Grove Middle School, and Northeastern Elementary School.

In addition to the schools, teams are emerging from various pockets of our community, from a CIS board and a CIS volunteer team, to corporate teams like CWS Financial Advisors, Fifth Third Bank, Gazelle Sports, Trillium HR, CSM Group, Welsh & Associates, Zoetis, Stryker, Radisson Plaza Hotel, and Maestro, to a Girls on the Run Greater Kalamazoo team (yep, they’re walking) and The Kalamazoo Promise, along with community members pulling together their own team or choosing to walk as individuals—all getting out this month to walk a total of 12,000 miles to support Kalamazoo students.

New this year, CIS has partnered up with Gazelle Sports Kalamazoo. This local business has kindly opened up their walks to all Walking with Purpose participants to help them get their miles in! Opportunities to walk throughout the month can be found on this Walking with Purpose schedule here.

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. Stay in step with CIS this month as we highlight Walking with Purpose moments via our Ask Me About My 12,000 Kids blog, the CIS Facebook page, and Linkedin.

The goal, by the way, 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.

Walking with Purpose is presented by Ascension Borgess and supporting sponsors: CWS Financial Advisors, FEMA Corporation, Fifth Third Bank, and OnStaff USA.

We’ll leave you with some pics from the celebratory open Walking with Purpose walk that was held yesterday and which began at Woodward School for Technology & Research.