On a cold but sunny Saturday morning, runners gathered at the Hockey Arena to participate in the BG chapter of the American Marketing Association event called the Harvest Hustle 5k.

BGAMA organized the run to support RallyCap Sports, a non-profit organization on campus dedicated to providing sports opportunities to children and young adults with special needs.  

Andrew Ludwig, race organizer and executive vice president of external relations of BGAMA, said the goal of the 5K was to get a “hustle” going about RallyCap Sports and since RallyCap Sports is new to campus and the College of Business, spread the word about the mission of this organization.

“We are very happy to help spread the word about RallyCap Sports and it is very exciting to lend a helping hand to another organization that is housed in the College of Business,” he said.

Luke Sims, president of BG RallyCap Sports, said RallyCap Sports was started 20 years ago by BG alumnus Paul Hooker.

“He started it in New Jersey,” Sims said. “It’s grown to about 120 kids and he came to the College of Business at BGSU because he wanted to see the program grow and impact more lives.”

RallyCap Sports at BGSU kicked off in October with an event where 37 participants and more than 90 volunteers came together for a day of soccer, flag football and golf.

This is the first year that BGAMA has hosted a 5K run and Luke Sims said events like this are important for the support of non-profits

like RallyCap Sports.

Greg Hermes, president of BGAMA, said that despite the freezing temperatures of 25 degrees Fahrenheit, runners were all in a very positive mood and overall the atmosphere was very fun

and exciting.

“We had a total of 61 people sign up for the race and we had around 40 actually run or walk with about 10 people volunteering to help,” he said.

Freshman Ann Howard said participating in a 5K like this is a great way to help support a cause but also stay active in the morning.

Hermes said BGAMA would have to crunch some numbers first before announcing how much money was raised, yet he said a minimum of $200 will be given to RallyCap Sports.

Sims said RallyCap Sports will use the money towards its plans of expanding the program to other campuses around the nation.

“We plan on opening up many more chapters like this here at BGSU at other universities and hope to impact many more lives,” he said. “We have a local donor who is actually going to match that dollar number so we can get a nice chunk of change that will help us move forward.”

Thanks to the success of its first 5K, BGAMA currently plans to turn the Harvest Hustle 5K into annual event.