Students Run Oakland

I was invited to attend a fund raiser for an organization for which a friend of mine volunteers. The organization is called Students Run Oakland (SRO). The program gets kids in Oakland schools to commit to learning/training to run a marathon which will take place in LA. Everything is paid for, for the kids.

The event showcased a documentary film which focused on four of the kids as they trained for and then ran the marathon. The story was completely inspiring and heartbreaking seeing the challenges that some of the kids experience as they are trying to make it to L.A.

The marathon ends up being a great metaphor for what they are experiencing and what they will experience as they grow from teens to young adults. Life is hard and sometimes taking on something new can be challenging, painful, not fun, but if you want to achieve your goals, you have to stretch yourself.

I was completely inspired by the event.

• Life Changing: 4 (verging on)
• Fun: 5 (super fun)
• Easy to implement: 1 (easy)
• Worthy of repetition:5 (in some way shape or form)
• Try This: 5 (perhaps this should read "support this")
• Cost: 3 (Fund raisers are never really cheap)