All photos credit: Photo by Ingrid Barrentine for wear blue: run to remember

As we began planning the re-launch of our Amerithon Challenge, we wanted to find a charity partner that spoke directly to the power one finds in joining around a common bond. When we found wear blue: run to remember we knew we didn’t need to look any further. Their mission is strong and speaks to us.

The efforts of wear blue: run to remember center around a common principle - building a running community that honors the service and sacrifice of the American military. This clear focus has allowed wear blue to act as a dynamic support network for military families that creates both opportunity for healing and connection to the civilian community.

One of wear blue’s very impactful initiatives is the Gold Star Program. The Gold Star Program offers two opportunities for creating healing and strength via running:

• Gold Star Race Program - Family members of fallen soldiers are given the resources and means to train for and complete a major endurance running event. The selected family member receives full training support, race entry access and travel. Application to the Gold Star Race Program is open to spouses, parents, children, and siblings of those who have died while in service of the United States military.
• Gold Star Youth Mentorship Program - In partnership with Big Brothers-Big Sisters, it is a community impact program, pairing active duty military with children of fallen service members in a 9-week run mentorship program.

We feel the programs alone speak for themselves, but we asked wear blue founder Lisa Hallett to share the stories of a few of their program recipients so that we could form an even stronger connection to the fundraising we are doing with this Amerithon launch. We will be sharing a story every week in July while we are raising funds for wear blue so that you can learn more about the people this great organization supports. So, stay tuned and check our blog to read about some amazing and heroic individuals.

For now, take a moment to look through photos of wear blue Gold Star athletes and supporters from this year’s Rock'n'Roll Seattle. The pictures say it all: