Charlestown resident Anya Nelson said her daughter, Natasha, loves to run — but laps at the nearby high school track weren’t cutting it.
After a quick Google search, Nelson stumbled upon Run Your City Boston, a six-week sports program led by Boston University track and cross country student-athletes.
“So far, Natasha has been so into it,” Nelson said. “She loves that there’s multiple things that she’s doing. It’s not just running. It’s very versatile.”
Run Your City Boston is a local chapter of the nationwide nonprofit organization Run Your City. The bi-weekly program aims to provide equal sports opportunities to children in kindergarten to eighth grade. Run Your City Boston began Sept. 27 and will end Nov. 22.
The collaboration began when a Run Your City executive reached out to BU sophomore and Run Your City Boston co-president Caroline Collins via Instagram. From there, Collins began building a team.
“We know how important it is for child development, and we know how expensive it is for families,” Collins said. “We want everybody to have the opportunity to take part in a sport.”
As a BU alum, Nelson said Run Your City Boston “sounds perfect,” because she’s familiar with the campus and isn’t forcing her daughter into a program with excessive commitment.
“I love that everyone has different backgrounds, different ages, different skill levels,” Nelson said. “[They] have learned a lot from each other. It’s a great little community they created.”
Collins said during practice sessions, kids are split into different groups, each of which has a leader who guides participants through track and field events, such as the long jump, relays and shotput.
Besides teaching the kids associated skills with running technique, Collins said leaders encourage them to support one another while performing.
“That’s a very big value we have in the program. Instead of just having all the kids run at once, we’ll have a few kids run to emphasize how we want them cheering each other on,” she said. “That was really important for them to learn.”
Collins said she was touched by the excitement and energy from the kids at the first interaction.
“They bring so much energy, and it’s just so exciting to see,” she said.
Collins recalled how one of the younger participants, after running the 400-meter dash, was out of breath and said he’s “never running again.”
“He then gets up three minutes later and is already running all around again,” Collins said.
BU junior Molly Kiley, community engagement manager for Run Your City Boston, said it’s a great opportunity for student-athletes to volunteer by integrating their athletic talents.
“It’s a great way of introducing kids to our passion, as we are on the team ourselves, too, and seeing how far it can take them if they stick with the sport,” she said.
BU sophomore and Treasurer of Run Your City Boston Isaac Mahler, said seeing how many people who signed up was unforgettable.
“We’ve grown faster than expected,” Mahler said. “When we first took a look in our sign-up sheet and we saw we had 70 people sign up, we were like ‘Wow, all of these people believe in us.’ They trusted us to put on an amazing program.”
In the upcoming sessions, Mahler said they will give kids upgraded snacks and meals, free Run Your City t-shirts and medals at the end of their competition.
As treasurer, Mahler said he wants to expand by partnering with other schools and programs in the Boston area, focusing more on practices in the spring season.
“Hopefully, when they go back to school, they’ll be talking about Run Your City on the weekends with their friends,” he said.“It [will] create a really great network of kids and a bunch of familiar faces.”
