Hey, 517! Playmakers Has a Run/Walk for Just for Us
The Playmakers Fitness Foundation is looking to share the love within the 517 area this Sunday with a virtual run and walk. Adults are encouraged to sign up for 5.17 kilometers (3.2 miles) and to enlist kids for a 0.517 mile distance in the 5RUN7 event.
Marcy Gillespie Kinzer, Executive Director of the Playmakers Fitness Foundation, tells ELi that the Playmakers team has been working hard to support people in movement even as we all are having to put space between us.
“Obviously, it is a challenge because you can’t have people meet in person, so you have to think differently,” Kinzer said. “Some people are more motivated, and some people are seeking motivation – to find a reason to take care of themselves. We are challenged to meet our mission right now, but these virtual events are one way we have been able to inspire people and to help people take care of themselves and others.”
Playmakers often holds events for local charities. The recent Keep Your Space Virtual Race raised seven thousand dollars for the Ronald MacDonald house.
But this time, any donations made in conjunction with this Sunday’s 5RUN7 event will go to the Playmakers Fitness Foundation.
The foundation provides walking and running clubs for the Boys and Girls Club of Lansing and at St. Vincent’s Home for Children. It also provides free “good form” instruction, using a curriculum developed by Curt Munson and John Benedict of Playmakers, to help people learn how to walk and run without pain and injury, so that they can move better and more often.
And the foundation provides events, “to empower and inspire all community members to move, move, move,” in Kinzer’s words.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s current executive orders now do allow curbside sales to customers. But Kinzer says that Playmakers is currently still using only its online system to arrange purchases with home deliveries.
That hasn’t stopped the sales team from helping people with fittings from home.
“Staff can help you find the right shoe,” Kinzer explains. The staff members video-chat with customers to “help you measure your foot, watch your gate, and do the shoe-fitting virtually” as they work from the store using social distancing measures.
While stay-at-home orders are in place, Playmaker’s Wednesday free in-store injury clinic is on hold, but help is still being dispensed on a one-on-one basis occasionally, using virtual means. The Playmakers injury clinic connects podiatrists, physical therapists, and other medical experts with people who need a little first-line advice on how they should manage a movement-related injury.
Want to join people around our area in moving together this Sunday? Registration for the 5RUN7 is, of course, online.