For the health and safety of all involved, we are shifting this year’s Refuse To Abuse® 5K to something we can do while social distancing.
What’s a virtual 5K?
Participants will walk, jog, or run a 5K (3.1 miles) on your own, wherever it is safe to do so (e.g., in your neighborhood, on a treadmill) on July 11, 2020. When you’re done, you can get your race swag (finishers’ medal and Bluetooth speaker) either by picking it up at the ballpark on July 11 (we’ll have a safe, socially distant method for handing it out) or we will mail it to you. We’ll be interacting across social media channels throughout race day to make the experience fun and interactive!
This event has always been a time to celebrate the resilience of survivors and the power of community. At a time when so many survivors (and our communities as a whole) are experiencing isolation, we hope this virtual event will provide some much needed connection, communicate to everyone experiencing abuse that you are not alone, and we will back in-person again next year.
What else has changed?
In addition to switching from an in-person run/walk to a virtual experience, there are a couple of changes to prizes and giveaways:
1. Registration will still include a finishers’ medal, but T-shirts will unfortunately not be available this year. We’ve replaced the shirts with these cute Bluetooth speakers!
2. Our fundraising contest will now offer prizes to the top 3 individual fundraisers only. The prize packages will not be able to include ballpark experiences, as games have been cancelled for the time being. Instead, prizes will include signed Dee Gordon and Kyle Seager items and gift certificates to local businesses.
If I’ve already registered, what will happen to my registration?
Thank you so much for already registering and beginning to fundraise! We are excited to still be able to rally together for this important event and to raise funds for domestic violence prevention. This is an extremely timely issue, with so many being isolated at home in unsafe environments. We hope that you continue to help us spread the word and raise funds. Stay in touch on our Facebook event page and get additional details on our event website.
We do recognize that this event has changed, and therefore want to offer you a few options as we move forward. For those that have already registered, you can either:
1. Participate in the virtual event. We hope you choose this option! We’d love you to stay involved and really appreciate your continued support. No action needed for this option – your previous registration has you covered!
2. Defer your registration to next year’s event. To activate this option, please email 5K@wscadv.org with DEFER in the subject line.
3. Opt out of participating and donate your registration fee to WSCADV to support our violence prevention work. To activate this option, please email 5K@wscadv.org with DONATE in the subject line.
Count me in! How do I sign up?
For more information and to register, please visit RefuseToAbuse5k.org.
Questions? Please reach out to us at 5K@wscadv.org .