I ran my first race in memory of my mother almost 20 years ago, and now I’m running my first race as a mother!
The first was exactly 1 year from the day that my mom passed away after over a decade of cancer, and I like to think that health was her last gift to me. I started running to train for that race, and in no small way, it changed my life – physically of course, but it also allowed for time and reflection and became a way for me to feel closer to her. She was known for her unstoppable positive energy so I would try to channel that energy as running motivation.
I stopped running 3 years ago, a few months before my daughter burst into our lives in the back seat of our car on the way to the hospital. And obviously in no small way, my life changed again!
And then March 2020 changed life for all of us, and we all have our own unique experiences of the challenges during this collective covid era.
A very long year & a half into the pandemic, our daughter started the 2’s program at One World Project, a Spanish immersion preschool that is awesome in all kinds of ways, and it turns out, she was more than ready to be with other people after SOOO much time at home with just us. OWP has been transformative and nurturing, and she comes home every day excited and talking nonstop in Spanish and English about her classmates and new things she has learned from her caring teachers – music and nature and art and culture. And it all largely takes place outdoors, which is one of the incredible safety measures the school put in place for covid – they redesigned exterior spaces as classrooms, installed extra sinks, hired additional teachers and staff for reduced sized classes, etc. But taking on these extra precautions along with a deficit from reduced funding for Universal Pre-K at private facilities has put financial stress on the school.
In addition, OWP is committed to ensuring that children of all socio-economic backgrounds can attend and has developed a scholarship program to make this early educational experience accessible to more families.
So with the hope of keeping OWP’s programming intact and building a robust scholarship fund, a group of over 50 parents and teachers have signed up to run the Brooklyn Half Marathon to raise funds for the school! And since I stopped running because of my daughter when I was pregnant, I am excited to start running again for her – both to raise money for this special place and to try to share with her the gift of health that was such a connection for me to my mom.
And even though it feels impossible to start running again, I keep telling myself that if I can have a baby on the West Side Highway, maybe I can get back in shape and run a half marathon!
Right now it seems like a very big challenge.
But I do also have a little help in training beyond the amazing team that you can read about on these pages – whenever we’re going somewhere outside, my daughter asks to hold my hand and run with her down the sidewalk for blocks and blocks. So my training has already begun with her help, and she has become my new unstoppable positive energy motivator. : )
If you have the means, please consider donating. Gracias from our family and many others!
