Every year in May,  the Lawrence Humane Society hosts a 5K run and a festival full of fun, food, and games in South Park near downtown Lawrence. Like many other organizations, we were forced to alter our event due to COVID-19. With only a few weeks to pull something together that would still help us raise funds for the animals and remain social distance friendly, our tiny marketing team came up with a month long walking challenge. The month long event would end with a virtual 5K where you can run 3.1 miles anywhere in the world! For those who lived in Lawrence, we set up a few routes scattered around different parts of town for participants to walk/run. 

Initially, we had hoped for about 100 participants and almost 400 people signed up to participate in the challenge, 5K, or both! Challengers recorded any walks or runs using the Strava app on their mobile devices. This app served as an online community space for people to share photos of themselves or their dogs and for other participants to like/comment on those posts. It also helped our team track how many miles each individual walked or ran. Because of the huge interest in this event and our amazing sponsors, we were able to raise $35,000 for our lifesaving mission! Despite the challenges, we can’t help but feel so proud of how the 2020 Paw Valley Challenge & 5K went! 

Please enjoy the fantastic photos below and THANK YOU so much to all who participated!