Walking With Purpose 2025: A Record-Breaking Year of Community and Impact

At Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo (CIS), October always seems to fly by—and this year was no exception! In the blink of an eye, we wrapped up this year’s Walking With Purpose, our annual month-long initiative to raise awareness and funds in support of Kalamazoo students.

With hearts full of gratitude, we extend our sincere appreciation to everyone who made this year’s event such a success: the incredible Woodward School team for hosting our kickoff walk, our dedicated team captains for inspiring their groups, our sponsors and donors for their generous support, our student ambassador Ariel for her enthusiasm and creativity, and every individual who joined us throughout the month to walk and give in support of Kalamazoo students.

This year was truly record-breaking for Walking With Purpose. We had more teams, more individual participants, and more miles logged than ever before! One of our key goals was to increase participation among school teams—and we exceeded that goal with flying colors. The results are inspiring, and we can’t wait to see the continued impact on our students.

Our collective goal was to walk 12,000 miles, representing the 12,000 students served by CIS across 23 Kalamazoo schools. Together, we surpassed that milestone—walking over 34,000 miles!

In addition to breaking mileage records, we also raised over $44,000 (and counting) through this year’s initiative. Every dollar helps us continue our mission to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.

A special thank-you goes out to our amazing team captains, who led the way and motivated more than 480 participants to walk and raise funds for Kalamazoo kids. We also deeply appreciate the many individual participants who joined the effort—your involvement truly made a difference.

Our student ambassador, Ariel, kept the energy high throughout the month with her fun and inspiring videos and messages. You can find all of Ariel’s videos on our social media pages here.

If you’d like to continue supporting Walking With Purpose, our donation page will remain open until the end of the year. Your contribution helps us continue this vital work for Kalamazoo students. Here is a link to the donation pages.

We are also deeply grateful to our 2025 Walking With Purpose sponsors, whose partnership made this event possible:

Presenting Sponsor: Consumers Credit Union
Supporting Sponsors: CWS Financial Advisors, Flowserve, Old National Bank, OnStaff USA, Walbridge, and Warner Norcross + Judd
In-Kind Sponsors: Gazelle Sports, Rose Wellbeing, and Husted’s Farm Market

At CIS, community isn’t just part of our name—it’s at the heart of everything we do. Walking With Purpose embodies the power of community coming together for a shared cause: supporting students so they can stay in school and achieve in life.

Thank you again to everyone who was part of this incredible journey. Together, we’re walking with purpose—today, and every day—for Kalamazoo students.