The first year that Young Lives in Hamilton hosted a 5k on Thanksgiving morning, 30 brave souls came to run through the neighborhood of Highland Park in the chilly morning.
The second year, they eclipsed 360 runners, and the third year heralded 537 runners. This year, they’d love to see even more, maybe even 800. To make such exponential growth happen, a committed team of organizers work for many months to make this memorable event.
The Thanksgiving 5k for Young Lives is a volunteer-led effort that hopes to create a fun, memorable event for families and friends on a sometimes-frosty Thanksgiving morning. Before participating in a historically large meal, many now choose to get active with a 3.1 mile run around a beautiful neighborhood in Hamilton. 
Building the 5k is motivated by the mission of Young Lives, a branch of the popular high school ministry Young Life that reaches out to teens. Young Lives creates mentoring opportunities for teen mothers in the area, giving them the support and companionship that can help them to grow up happy and become strong mothers themselves.
While the mentors give of their time as volunteers, sending the Young Lives teen mothers to camp during the summer has associated costs, so the money raised by the 5K goes to send as many teen mothers as possible to a week of summer camp where they can rejuvenate and meet new people.
“We call camp the best week of your life,” Organizing committee member Allison Korson says.“It lets teens be kids again; every detail is thought through, and it is a week where they can feel really loved and cared for.”
Creating the 5K takes more effort than you might think; one member of the organizing committee, Katie Powers, runs the course once a week, making sure the route is responsive to the needs of a large group of runners and in order to make sure the course is exactly 5 kilometers.
The organizing committee also is in charge of getting bibs so the race can be timed, finding businesses to donate prizes, and publicizing the race so that many people will choose to come out and support it.
Over the years, friendships have been forged while choosing t-shirt designs or when showing up early to make sure streets are blocked off as needed. The best moment, though, for Powers is the experience of seeing everyone getting ready for the race, often while partaking of some local coffee and pastries.
“I love race morning, looking out and seeing so many people who have shown up and are having a good time; you’ve got small businesses represented bringing coffee and baked goods, and there is an excitement about it,” Powers said. “I love when we brought the teen moms and their babies up front, and they got to see all the people who are there to support them. It breaks down barriers in our community about teen moms, so they don’t feel isolated.”
The race will be on Thanksgiving morning in Highland Park, but future years could see an even bigger race with a potential new location.
“It is our hope as a race committee that the race would continue to grow with the city of Hamilton and into surrounding areas to promote community,” said Kristin Kwiat of the organizing committee. “ We believe we could eventually outgrow our current race course through Highland Park and hope to move possibly along the riverfront or throughout the beautiful downtown Hamilton area.”
If you’d like to support your community, get a little exercise in, and see beautiful homes, all in the same morning, you can find details for registering at https://www.hamiltonthanksgiving5k.org/, and keep up-to-date at their Facebook page @hamiltonyounglives5k.
