This week’s Charity Miles Champion is Hailey. Hailey is a fitness facility manager who runs for fun. She uses Charity Miles as a motivation to give back and have friendly competition with her cousin. Consider making a family team inside of the app.
I started my fitness journey by borrowing my mom’s Tae Bo videos. On my 16th birthday, I got my first gym membership. Now, I not only still love working out, but I manage a fitness center! I have a goal of staying healthy and active throughout my life.
I struggled with running. I didn’t think of myself as a runner. I didn’t like to categorize myself with others who ran and were, quite frankly, better at it than me. I made my first lofty goal of doing 100 miles in a month. That’s roughly 5k a day.
Around the same time I read in a health magazine about the app Charity Miles. My first thought was that it was ingenious that I could log my miles AND have it donate money to help someone else at the same time. That got me thinking!! The more I used the app the more I fell in love with it and what it does. It changed my focus from making myself into a “runner” to making a difference.
Flashing forward to today; Charity Miles has become integrated into my everyday life. I use it as a way to stay in touch with my cousin Caleb who I am very close with and who lives out of town. We use the hashtag #mckenziecousins as a way to compete with each other and collectively we are a few miles shy of two THOUSAND miles!! We still try to keep the goal of logging 100 miles a month. I enjoy running solo at my own pace in our parks, especially during the fall. It is my favorite time of the year!!
The charities that I choose to log miles for are the Wounded Warrior Project and Stand Up to Cancer. I think the work they do is amazing. Plus it’s fun to contribute to something that helps our Vets and in solidarity with people who are fighting cancer.
If I could encourage anyone to do anything it would be to use Charity Miles. It doesn’t matter how big or how small. Just have fun with it! You’ll find so much out about yourself if you are willing to help others. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing venture to be significant. Small things CAN have a big impact and doing a little can make all the difference!