Proud To Be a Part of Santa Monica

For several years the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation had been wanting to kick off an athletic endowment to help fund sports and athletics programs for Santa Monica & Malibu Schools. On Sunday October 2nd it finally happened. Over $40K was raised as of the morning at the 6th annual Santa Monica 5000 race.

To me Santa Monica has a perfect mix of everything: community, young professionals, good schools, down to earth families, restaurants, a few bars and shops. I never get sick of getting to see the ocean daily or the avid fitness enthusiasts running and cycling. Living in Santa Monica makes it pretty easy to stay active. As the years have gone by now (over 12), I have had the pleasure of going to visit many of the schools in the area-either as a college rep for Washington University, as a fitness professional (O2 MAX) or as an entrepreneur speaking to students about business. Along the way I have also met lots of parents and students.

It was incredible to see SO many students out there this morning and so excited to run for a cause  - the sport of their choice for their school. Parents were even inspired to run a race for their first time because of their kids involvement, SAMOHI mom Susan Staraci ran her first 10K ever (and it was impressive). I was on Facebook late Saturday night and saw several posts from students on my feed about getting up to run and parents posting things like "good luck" or "I'm proud of you." To see students posting on Facebook and words of encouragement being offered right away can help make a "race" so much less daunting to newbies. Even the best of us get race jitters the night before.  A race to benefit the Education Foundation had been in talks for years now. I think it's no coincidence that as the world really begins to embrace social media this event was finally able to happen. 

I definitely felt like I got to experience history in the making today and felt proud to be a part of the Santa Monica Community. This race exemplified what community is about while making a bigger difference. It was definitely a team effort to make today's event such a success. Brennan & Michelle Lindner of Generic Events along with Linda Gross, the Executive Director for the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation and several others did an amazing job pulling together the details in a pretty short time. 

October also happens to be National Kids Health Month. As part of this, there is a global initiative to break the Guiness book world record of the most number of people doing jumping jacks in a 24 hour period. Jumping Jacks are an easy way to get moving without needing any equipment. This initiative is being led by CAHPERD and will begin at The White House on October 11 at 3 PM EST. O2 MAX is the social media partner for the campaign and I was excited to be able to lead a jumping jack warm up with the help of some SAMOHI students. I think what happened today was incredible and even inspired another fitness professional, Mike Robinson to take the jumping jack warm up with students to a local race in San Louis Obispo next weekend where he lives. 

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