Alumni Runners Make Strides on Campus
Melissa Di Pietro ’06 isn’t a track star by any stretch. “I’m really not a big runner,” she admits. “I can’t run that far or that fast, and I run in only two or three small events a year. But I always want to race at BC.”
Di Pietro, who participated in BC’s third annual Welles Remy Crowther Red Bandana Run last fall, is one of a growing number of graduates who run to support causes that matter to the BC community.
“Like so many alumni, I like to return to campus. The race provides the chance to bond with fellow graduates while running across the Heights,” she says, discussing the 5K campus race that benefits a charitable trust in memory of Welles Remy Crowther ’99, an equities trader who lost his life on September 11, 2001.
A record of more than 80 alumni runners (out of approximately 285 entrants) returned for the race last year. To date, participants have raised more than $50,000 to support nonprofits working with children, according to Jessica Alberti ’00, one of several alumni who help organize the race along with BC’s Volunteer and Service Learning Center.
Alberti says the race’s popularity owes much to the long-term success of the Campus School’s marathon program and the MBA 5K Challenge. Established in 1996, the Boston Marathon program largely attracts undergraduates, who train and raise money to support the school’s mission to educate students with severe multiple special needs. But each year a handful of alumni join the team. “I learned of the program while working at the school as a graduate student,” says alum runner Kevin Collins ’05, M.Ed.’08, who completed the 2006 marathon. “But other alumni have already participated as undergraduates and want to continue running for the school.”
Tradition also plays a large part in the MBA 5K, which grew its alumni field to more than 30 in its eighth running on campus this April. As always, proceeds benefited the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. “Many young alums see the race as an opportunity to stay involved with BC. It also gives them a chance to network with colleagues in their field and, of course, raise money for a cause that matters to BC,” says co-organizer Tara Wilcox ’03, MBA’08.
With the rise in graduates running for BC causes, Wilcox hopes to double the race’s alumni participants next year. “No matter what BC race a graduate chooses, it’s a good time to be an alumni runner,” she says.