While runners won’t gather this upcoming Thanksgiving morning in the early morning hours for the annual Home Run for the Homeless, Gennesaret Inc.’s 29th-annual event is still taking place, albeit virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is happening now through Nov. 30.
The online only virtual 5k registration fee is $15 per person (or $25, with finisher medals for the first 500 people registered) and the virtual one-mile run/walk is $15 or $10 per person. Registration is available at www.gennesaret.net. In 2019, the in-person event had more than 3,000 registered runners/walkers and their families.
This is the only fundraiser for Gennesaret, an all-volunteer nonprofit with a core base of about 300 volunteers that has served people in poverty for 34 years in Akron. Cleveland Clinic Akron General is the lead sponsor. Gold-level sponsors are Suburban Maintenance and Construction, Vertical Runner running-shoe store and Western Reserve Racing. The radio sponsor is WNIR 100 FM. Butch Reynolds, Olympic track gold medalist and former world-record holder, is the honorary race chairperson.
Gennesaret serves hot meals to an average of 500 individuals weekly and is funded entirely from grants and individual contributions. To help feed a person in need, a donation of $5 provides 10 meals; $20 provides 40 meals; $60 provides 120 meals; $240 provides 480 meals; and $720 provides 1,440 meals.
Gennesaret’s volunteers prepare and serve meals, pack and distribute bags of groceries, distribute clothing and pick up donated food items. All race proceeds go directly to serving those in dire financial straits through the Family Nutritional Center.
For info, visit (330) 858-6777.
