Tag Archives: Minneapolis

Give to the Max 2011

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Today is Give to the Max Day in Minnesota.  It is your chance to support your favorite MN nonprofit organizations.  Why is today special? One donation each hour is a Golden Ticket, earning the recipient an extra $1,000.  Additionally there are awards of up to $15,000 given in a variety of categories.

This year, in the first hour of giving $100,000 was given! In 2010, over $10 million was raised by 42,000 Minnesotans.  Each year (2009, 2010) I’ve provided a list of running related organizations you could support.  This year’s list is sadly smaller.  I’ve decided only to highlight organizations that have completed the GiveMN portal’s profile.

In no particular order:

Bolder Options – youth mentoring

YWCA of Minneapolis – fitness, youth, women, and so much more

YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis – fitness, youth, and so much more

She Runs – helping young girls complete their first 5k

Twin Cities in Motion – Support TCM’s community work

Team Tesfa – support education in Ethiopia

Midtown Greenway Coalition – support the Midtown Greenway

I’m sure I’ve missed some great running organizations.  Let me know which ones and I’ll gladly update the list.

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Blizzard People

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PC124752Minneapolis got 17.5 inches of snow on Saturday.  That’s quite a wallop we are still collectively trying to dig out of.  Up until now, I’d been quite content without a snow blower, but now I’m thinking about it.  My dad offered me his, but its 10 hours away in Ohio. He also offered my his 4 wheeler with a blade on it, that’d be fun!

So the question is, how do you count snow shoveling as a workout?  I spent almost 2 hours yesterday scooping and throwing snow and another 45 minutes today (thanks to the townhouses in my alley for destroying my awesome shoveling job).  My shoulder is a little sore and I definitely felt it in my core.  So is it a cardio/core workout? Or just core?

How do you record snow shoveling in your training log? Do you record it at all?

I could just get one of these:

PC124753

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13.1 Minneapolis Supported World Vision

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World Vision Runners - provided by DVA

Sunday was the inaugural 13.1 Minneapolis Half Marathon. Part of the event proceeds support World Vision‘s work with clean water in Kenya (the same as my fundraising).

The Inaugural 13.1® Minneapolis took more than 2,500 runners and walkers on a course filled with festivities, beautiful scenery and live entertainment. Kicking off near St. Anthony Main and ending at Nokomis Park, the half marathon and Karhu 5K, proved to truly be where the party met the pavement.
Coming in first was Chad Ernst, 22, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps, with a time of 1:13:50. “I was pleased with
everything about the race, especially finishing first,” said Ernst, who has been running since he was ten years old
but had never won a race this large. Other top male runners included Christian Mihelich, coming in second at
1:16:32, followed closely by Jonathon Balabuck who finished the race at 1:17:38.
The first female to cross the finish line was Leah Thorvilson, 31, with a time of 1:26:11. Thorvilson recently
qualified for the Olympic trials marathon team and has run over 150 races in the past 3 years. “I’ve competed
in a lot of races and was really impressed with this one, particularly the turn out for an inaugural race,” said
Thorvilson.
Charity partner Team WorldVision has raised more than $150,000 and expects to top the $200,000 mark overall
for the race. The money will go towards providing clean water for more than 68,000 children and families and
90,000 livestock in Kenya, Africa.

Taken from the official release.  Full results can be found here.

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Very Crazy Idea – I need YOUR Help

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Dear friend who may or may not occasionally run,

I decided to do something a little crazy, especially since I’ve been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis and my knee randomly swelled up on me recently.

I signed up a team for the Ragnar Relay – Great River edition. On August 20 and 21 this race goes from Winona, WI to Minneapolis, MN and traverses 193 miles in the process. With 12 people running out of 2 vans the average distance any one runner runs is 16.1 miles. Over three runs and two days that isn’t too scary of an idea. Throw in the fun of running together and 15 passenger vans and it is a piece of cake.

I signed up for four reasons, 1 – we saved a good chunk of money on registration fees 2 – I got two free Ragnar headlamps, which will come in handy during the night-time legs of the race 3 – Ragnar posts a fairly easy training plan that starts April 9 and 4 – children are still dying for lack of healthy water.

To make the race even more exciting I and (ideally) the whole team will be raising money for Team World Vision. All money raised this year for Team World Vision will support water projects in Kenya and other African countries. World Vision is an amazing organization and I’m sure you’ve heard of it, if you haven’t I’ll direct you to this series that I wrote on my blog. My goal is to raise $2,000 again this year, which averages out to about $10.37 per mile of the relay.

So what I need from you is two things. First, I need you to e-mail and say that you are excited to join Team Run the River for Africa. I actually have to add you to the team on Ragnar’s site, we’ll then make arrangements for you to get me your $85 registration fee and a signed waiver. Secondly, assuming you want to help support water projects in Kenya you’ll need to visit Team World Vision’s site and signup under our team.  (This isn’t a requirement but I’d like the entire team to be wearing Team World Vision jerseys.)

What do you think? Are you up to the challenge? I’m sure you are! We’ll iron out more of the logistical details over the next few months.

I’m pretty excited about this and look forward to running with you.

Nick

PS. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, Team World Vision is hosting a 13.1 mile race in Minneapolis on August 22. This is one of their big national events and a portion of all proceeds goes towards their water programs. Additionally, there will be a ton of World Vision focused stuff going on with hopefully 1,000’s of runners sporting TWV Orange. When I first came up with this idea, I was planning on doing the relay and finishing with the 13.1 mile event on Sunday. I’m taking a more cautious wait & see approach on that right now, but if you do it, I’ll probably do it too! If you were a little bit of a chicken and wanted to only commit to running the 13.1 that’s fine too, I suppose. You can still join my Team World Vision team!

PPS. Ragnar Relay rules require us to provide 3 volunteers to help throughout the weekend at aid stations, etc. We may also enjoy having additional drivers and nighttime bike riders/pacers. So let me know if your interested in that too!

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Give to the Max

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For 24 hours, starting at 8:00 am on November 17th, every donation made through www.GiveMN.org will be eligible to receive a portion of the $500,000 match. These funds were contributed by the Minneapolis Foundation, St. Paul Foundation and Bush Foundation. Also, generous funders are defraying donation processing fees on this site, so 100% of your gift goes straight to the organization!

In addition to the matching funds, the three nonprofits that receive the most individual donations will receive cash prizes: $5,000 for first prize, $2,500 for second, and $1,000 for third.

Over 36,000 organizations have a profile on the site. Thirty-two show up when I type “running” into the search engine though most of them aren’t running related or are too specific for my purposes. So I helped narrow it down for you.

Running Related

  • Minnesota Distance Running Association (MDRA) is my running family in Minneapolis.  It is one of the largest clubs in MN and does some great work.
  • Twin Cities Running Club (TC Running) they are a “rival” USATF team but it is all fun and games.
  • Team USA – MN is a post-collegiate training center and group for runners to be coached and supported while they strive to fulfill their athletic goals.
  • Bolder Options is a great youth mentoring program that connects youth and mentors through running (and biking) activities.  I would highly recommend volunteering as a mentor with Bolder Options.
  • MN Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contains 13 member colleges that support student athletes.
  • YWCA provides a variety of services to pretty much every population. They focus primarily on racial justice and empowering women and girls. In Minneapolis they also operate 3 fitness facilities. We are a member of the YWCA.
  • YMCA also provides a variety of services and operates a lot of fitness facilities around Minneapolis and the West Metro. Some of our friends work for the YMCA, though none of their facilities are conveniently located for us.

Below are 7 organizations that I have given to or would give to if I had more money! (in no particular order)

  • Longfellow United for Youth and Family have played a huge role on my work here in MN. LUYF is a coalition of community members and churches that provide a free tutoring program and strongly support the work of the Sanford Job Corps – one of my primary responsibilites at Sanford.
  • Elpis Enterprises has been another great partner for my work in MN. Elpis or Hope provides teenagers the opportunity to gain work-related skills and leadership through screen printing and other businesses. My first encouter with Elpis was with their bird feeder program. We bought kits and Paul brought out one of his employees and they helped my kids build 20 bird feeders in 1 hour!
  • Achieve Minneapolis is more or less a foundation that supports programs within the Minneapolis Public Schools. They provide grants for classrooms, teacher professional development, field trips, host career fairs, and much much more.
  • CommonBond Communities provides affordable housing and supportive services in the Twin Cities. I put CommonBond under youth development because I volunteered with them during the summer of my Americorps*VISTA service. I served as a program assistant in a summer program that combined fun and learning during the afternoons for children residents of the Seward Towers. They provide many more services to their residents.
  • World Relief helps refugees adjust to life in Minnesota and America. This is the umbrella organization for the English literacy site that Christy and I co-coordinate. They also provide job training, initial welcoming services, housing assistance and much more to refugees as they walk off the plane and into the sometimes harsh tundra of MN.
  • Minnesota Public Radio is a great news source for both local and national issues. They also have a rocking music station that plays a lot of local bands.
  • Second Harvest of the Heartland is a large food bank that is helping to end hunger in MN. It is affiliated with the national Feeding America (formerly Second Harvest Network) and does some great work here in the Twin Cities.
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