Ep197: West Michigan’s Total Trek Quest is keeping school-age boys running and feeling connected

“I’ve been running every morning at 6 a.m. and then walking every afternoon or night with my daughter. I’ve run more since we shut down on March 16 than any other time in my life, I think -- like 500+ miles. So you can tell how I’m coping.”

West Michigan runner Vicki Cavanaugh joins Heather to talk about life during these interesting times. Vicki, who is involved with Total Trek Quest (TTQ), a program that assists third-, fourth- and fifth-grade boys in learning to run a 5K in the 5-county area in and around Grand Rapids, Mich., last was on the MRG show in 2017. More than 4,800 boys and their families have taken part in this program, which held a summer session for the first time this year.

“TTQ is adapting, adjusting, and pivoting. We sent out an email-based program ‘TTQ@Home’ the week of March 23 to try and provide some fun and movement in those first few weeks and month. When it started to look like this wasn’t going away, we began to develop a virtual summer TTQ program—complete with GoPro-filmed tips, virtual parent support meetings, and activity meetups, a modified curriculum to get the whole family involved, moving, and learning new things—and then we’ve added in person meetups. And to finish the season—a virtual 5k called the Challenge, Inspire and Achieve 5K the weekend of August 15-16. This has not been easy—we’ve all learned so much about everything we took for granted.”

Vicki also shares what’s kept her going strong throughout the past few months, as well as her hopes for the program and for all of us as we move forward.

“Movement can help us cope, brings us together, and helps make us healthy so we can withstand what we are going through.”

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Total Trek Quest

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A special thanks to the talented Jonny Tornga for producing the show.