Event Description

Race to Embrace 23K for 23K

Looking for a fun way to improve your health during 2021? Here’s how you can do that AND make life better for others: Join us as we Race to Embrace our neighbors with hope, light, and love this year.

Why a 23K?
Embrace is located in the heart of Waynesboro, a small city of 23,000 residents.  This race is a symbolic way of embracing each of our neighbors. Our goal of 23,000 kilometers represents one kilometer completed in honor of each of those neighbors.

WHO WE ARE and WHAT WE DO
Embrace is a center for community where people of peace come together to provide hope and help to neighbors – not only the 23,000 residents of Waynesboro, where we are located, but to thousands of people in other communities. We do this …

• through programs like our Community Gardens that have provided families with garden space and collectively grown hundreds of pounds of food for our local food pantries, and are used as a teaching garden for other small groups interested in replicating our model.
• working with The Green Hanger Project (greenhangerproject.org), where we collect and distribute thousands of items of clothing, personal care products and school supplies to middle/high-school and college students in our region. Working with groups across the country, we are planting this model in other communities and on college campuses.
• partnering with other community organizations, churches, and government agencies to offer educational opportunities and host events, like weekly WIC clinics and community wellness initiatives with the Central Shenandoah Department of Health, cooking classes for food pantry guests with Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and Virginia Cooperative Extension and a free Teen Student Success Center and Learning Lab in conjunction with local National Honor Society and Beta Club members.
• offering students and other members of our community a safe and uplifting place to complete service hour requirements in ways that use their gifts and talents to make our community stronger.
• creating a natural playground and community park on nearly a city block of green space open for play where we envision neighbors gathering and kids engaging in the kind of creative play that fosters learning and relationships.
• as a center for missional innovation and incubation, where we aren’t afraid to try new ways of helping others. What we learn, we share with other groups so they can build on our success in their own communities.

These are just a few of the ways we bring neighbors together to share our resources, empower each other, improve our community, and, in doing so, equip our community to share light and love and life with other communities as we work together to make the world a better place for everyone. But we can’t do this – and more -- without YOU.

WHY YOU?
WITHOUT YOUR HELP, we may be forced to close in 2021. That’s why we need you to:
JOIN THE RACE to EMBRACE our neighbors. Due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Embrace has lost the majority of our funding. This year’s 23K for 23K will help us keep our lights on and doors open so that, together, we can continue to shine light into the darkness.

HOW YOU CAN STEP UP AND HELP OUT
The Race to Embrace 23k for 23k: June 1-23, 2021
Through this virtual race, participants will collectively cover 23,000 kilometers as we, quite literally, step up to embrace our neighbors – all 23,000+ of them.
Create your own 23k course in your neighborhood or through other parts of your community – whether or not that’s in Waynesboro. The more Ks we cover and the more $s we raise, the more people we can help – in Waynesboro and beyond.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN RACE TO EMBRACE 23,000+ PEOPLE:
Commit to run, roll, walk, jog, bike, hike, step, or swim 23k (14.29 miles) during the race period. Because we want you to show your community support as you complete your Ks, you’ll be able to pick up your race tee on the opening day of the challenge (or we will mail it to you). Wear it each time you log kilometers or steps. When you submit proof of completion and a photo of you in your shirt, we’ll send you a completion certificate. You’ll also be registered for our Finisher’s Club Prize Giveaway, with a grand prize package that includes a full refund of your registration fees. Registration Fee: $32

• HEY STEPPERS: Flip the Script and Step to It! Did you know that there are, on average, approximately 32,000 steps in a 23K? That’s just a bit more than two days of your typical 10,000-steps-a-day fitness goal. Make those steps count! Dedicate 32,000 of them (a 23K’s worth of steps) to helping others.

Make every step count even more by getting sponsors. For each sponsor you sign up, we’ll give you an extra entry in our Finisher’s Club Prize Giveaway. You’ll also earn an extra entry with every $100 in sponsorships you collect. 

GET CREATIVE! Want to step up the pace and help us raise even more money while contributing more steps to our total? Create a personal challenge and send the details to us – and your friends -- before the start of the race.

We’ll publish your challenge on our Facebook Event Group and see who wants to join. Send us updates along the way and we’ll post them to encourage others. When you’ve finished (or at the end of the race period), send us pictures and documentation of you completing your personal challenge. We’ll share your story with our neighbors.

If every member of your challenge group crosses the finish line, we’ll give you and one other participant in your challenge group (selected in a blind drawing) a prize. You will each also earn an extra entry in the Finisher’s Club prize giveaway.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• 1k a Day: Walk 1k (a little over a half mile) each day for 23 days. This is a great challenge for people who are easing back into a fitness routine, for families with small children, and for those who want to make their lunch-break count.
• Push for More: Who says you can only complete one 23k during the challenge period? We’ll give prizes for the most Ks or steps completed during the challenge period. Why not complete …
  • 23k a Week: That’s 3.3k (or 2.05 miles) per day.
  • 23K in a Day: At 14.29 miles, it’s like a half-marathon on steroids!

Or Join these challenges:

• Head Start Club: Challenge yourself (and your friends) to double your totals by getting a head start in May and keep it up through June. (Sorry, but you’ll have to wait on your tees until June).
• Stepping Up! Challenge yourself to complete 10,000 steps each day of the 23-day race and add 230,000 steps to our community goal of 32 million steps (the equivalent number of steps in 23,000 kilometers – 32,000 steps in one 23k X 1,000 participants = 32,000,000)

Form a Race Team and get sponsors. We’ll give prizes to the teams that raise the most money, complete the most Ks, and contribute the most steps. Make it even more fun by issuing a challenge to other families, businesses, or groups. Each member of your team will get a tee shirt personalized with your team’s name.