Stuyvesant’s Second Annual Homeless Coalition Charity Run

Two hundred seventy students lined up outside Stuyvesant along the Hudson River to participate in the second annual Homeless Coalition Charity Run on Friday, November 17. The run was organized by the Stuyvesant Homeless Coalition and the Wellness Council and was sponsored by Clif Bar & Company. The event was in support of Back On My Feet, a non-profit organization that provides homeless people with resources.

The event is an important part of the Homeless Coalition’s strategy to encourage students to reach out to homeless people. “The run is really important because we were spreading homelessness awareness when the weather is starting to get colder and rates of homelessness are exponentially growing in NYC and nationally,” senior and president of the Stuyvesant Coalition Anna Pacheco said in an e-mail interview.

This was the first time that the Wellness Council worked with the Homeless Coalition to coordinate an event. “We joined the event because it’s a run, so it promotes wellness in the Stuy community,” junior and event department head of the Wellness Council Sophia Day said.

To advertize the run, the clubs convinced teachers to give extra credit to those who participated. “We contacted a lot of teachers to offer extra credit for the run. [Many] teachers also share the same belief that running is a great way to promote proper well-being, and that through running, a lot of their students would learn either something related to their field or just a healthy practice overall,” junior and president of the Wellness Council Jerry Ye said.

Students who wanted to participate were able to sign up beforehand and choose to run either one or two miles. The participants had to sign in before starting the run and sign out when they finished. The runners also received complimentary CLIF bars from the event organizers.

“The run was different from other years because there were way more people,” Pacheco said. “We had more goodies to give out thanks to [physical education teacher Peter] Bologna.”

Despite the turnout at the run, the event organizers fell short of their fundraising goal. The Homeless Coalition is passing out pamphlets to encourage students to keep donating to organizations that help the homeless. “We didn’t raise as much money as we wanted,” Pacheco said. “One of our members at the homeless coalition matched the money we did make, so we raised $300 in total.”

Students will have many more opportunities to support the Homeless Coalition and to contribute to their cause. The club will be holding a shoe drive and a book drive before the end of the year.