The running club at the Illinois Club Relays last February. Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Strunck
Members of Ohio State’s Running Club have more than just their feet in motion.
Beginning in August, the Running Club has been participating in the #MoveMeMonday fundraiser through the Linda W. Daniel Foundation. Move Me Monday is an initiative to raise money for cancer awareness through promoting healthy lifestyles, according to the foundation’s website.
Every Monday, Sarah Strunck, a second-year in chemical engineering and the social media manager of the Running Club, posts a photo on the club’s Instagram account reminding the members of #MoveMeMonday, Strunck said.
Runners then comment how many beats they got that day and tag the Linda W. Daniel Foundation’s Instagram account, Strunck said. Strunck said each beat is equal to a one-mile run or 15 minutes of exercise. However many beats someone comments is how much money the foundation donates to cancer research.
“It was kind of a small way we thought we could get involved in something,” Strunck said.
Strunck said she saw running clubs at both Purdue and Indiana universities posting about it and that sparked her interest.
Linda Daniels, an Ohio State alumna, served as an athletic trainer at Ohio State from 1975 until her death in 2000 following a diagnosis with multiple myeloma — cancer that develops in the white blood cells — in 1995, according to the foundation’s website.
Donations from the foundation and Move Me Monday help support the Lee Jones Lab at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Center, according to the foundation’s website.
About 30 running club members comment every week on the #MoveMeMonday posts, Strunck said. She said their beats usually range from four to 10, resulting in $4-$10 donations.
Matt Polatas, a fourth-year in chemical engineering and the president of the Running Club, said he has been participating in #MoveMeMonday since the start of the posts in August.
“I like that we take the weekend off from Running Club stuff,” Polatas said. “Then we come back on Monday and we get to see everybody again on the post.”
Polatas said it feels good to be giving back to any sort of cause, and club members can do it in a very easy way since running every day is something they would do anyway.
“It is a cool way to have community togetherness in the club and also do a good thing,” Polatas said.
