Training for a marathon...training for life

The 3,200 middle and high school students of Students Run LA (SRLA) are nearly ready!  They have been training with their volunteer teacher/leaders since last summer, and will put themselves on the line on Sunday, March 9^th, to run the 26.2-mile ASICS LA Marathon.

For 24 years, Students Run LA (SRLA) has focused on one program:  A teacher (the “SRLA Leader”) volunteering to train with his/her middle or high school students for 26 weeks, to prepare for a marathon. Yet this one program has myriad impacts:

• Our students tell us that running helps them clear their heads of the stress in their lives.
• They report that spending time running with SRLA is an acceptable reason not to go with a gang, and often they will bring their younger siblings and cousins to SRLA to keep them out of gangs.
• They also report that the SRLA group becomes like a second family to them, caring about who they are, where they are, what they are doing, and where they are headed.  That feeling of belonging brings them to school and sustains them as they navigate their way.
• The SRLA Leaders mentor the students, helping them not only complete a marathon, but also stay in school, graduate, plan for college, become more healthy, and succeed on their own. 

The students who participate in SRLA face some of the most difficult circumstances in our community.  Most come from families living at or below the federal poverty level, their parents working hard to find and maintain jobs.  Many are from new immigrant families, often without much education, and may enter high school with little or no English skills, which make them feel like outsiders. They live in neighborhoods with high levels of drug use and gang violence, giving them a sense of danger around them.  Several SRLA schools are in areas where 50% of the students live in foster families, and some of our students are homeless. Being in SRLA helps students overcome these difficulties and move onto a path towards success.

You can change a teenager’s life for $300.  Please contribute to Students Run LA.

Students Run LA...In It For The Long Run...26.2 Miles