Running to make a change

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Runners take off at the start of Woodland Worldwide’s Superhero(ine) Run for a Revolution last year at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls. This year’s run is Oct. 11. –FILE PHOTO
Runners take off at the start of Woodland Worldwide’s Superhero(ine) Run for a Revolution last year at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls. This year’s run is Oct. 11. –FILE PHOTO

BEACON FALLS — Woodland Worldwide’s signature event is ready for another super run.

The Superhero(ine) Run for a Revolution, which includes a 5K and a 2 mile walk, is Oct. 11 at Woodland Regional High School, 135 Back Rimmon Road.

“It’s a great event to come to as an individual, but it’s an even better event to come with your family,” Woodland Worldwide co-advisor Lisa Olivere said.

Woodland Worldwide is a Woodland-based organization with a mission to advance the rights of women and girls within the community and around the world. The organization also focuses on developing leadership skills in students and empowering them to recognize their role in making the world a better place.

The Superhero(ine) Run for a Revolution is the organization’s largest fundraiser. The proceeds will benefit Woodland Worldwide’s scholarship fund and programs. Money raised from the event will also help three nonprofit organizations: the Gimbichu Project, the Malala Fund and Days for Girls.

This year is the run’s sixth year of existence, but the second year Woodland Worldwide has added a super twist.

“Everybody has a hero in their life,” Woodland Worldwide co-advisor Meghan Geary said.

Woodland Worldwide made the change last year as a way for participants to honor the heroes —someone they admire or someone that has overcome adversity — in their lives.

On the day of the run participants can choose between a race T-shirt or a superhero cape to wear. Runners can decorate the cape to honor their hero.

Olivere said the superhero(ine) aspect of the event has become the signature piece of the race, and helps to personalize the experience for runners.

The Superhero(ine) Run for a Revolution starts at 8:30 a.m. with registration packet pickup. The run and walk start at 10 a.m. Advanced registration is $25 for adults and $20 for students ages 12 to 18. Registration is $30 on race day. A $5 coupon is available through Oct. 5 for those who register using the coupon code “hero.” Registration can be done online at www.woodlandforwomenworldwide.org or in person at Woodland.

Geary said the run is a special way for people to connect with the community and support an organization that works to strengthen and empower society’s future leaders.

Olivere echoed those sentiments.

“Everyone has a responsibility to be teachers and educators in our community and we model the behavior we want to see in our students,” Olivere said. “When we talk about contributing to our world and contributing to our community, adults in the community demonstrate that by participating in events like this, and embracing it.”

11 COMMENTS

  1. It breaks my heart that I won’t be at the Run4Rev, an event near and dear to my heart. For those of you able to attend, you are in for a day of positive energy, support, fitness, and most of all FUN!!! This is more than a race. It is an event that brings together community and family. It sheds light on real, global issues as well as needs right in our own back yards. This is one of the biggest road race weekends of the year, and despite that, little Beacon Falls draws in an impressive crowd year after year. That’s because those who have participated have experienced the genuine inspiration Woodland Worldwide members have created with this event and all it stands for. I know I have felt it, as have my husband, son and daughter. I will be thinking of you all as you run for fun, run for change, and RUN FOR A REVOLUTION!

  2. I’m so sad to be missing this event for the first time since it’s founding!

    Woodland Worldwide completely changed my life. Before this organization was formed, I rarely thought about life outside my own small town. Once I began learning about the human rights abuses the occur every day around the world, I knew that I found my purpose in life. This organization literally saved my life by giving it meaning and I can honestly say that I owe all of my successes since I joined this organization to Woodland Worldwide.

    This organization has consistently grown to be more educated, educational, inclusive, and inspirational. I can’t wait to see another successful road race and where this organization goes in the future! I am more than confident that this group will continue to open the eyes of those in the community and beyond to the most pressing social justice issues today.

  3. Woodland Worldwide is an amazing organization from the high school where I was a student not too long ago. If it wasn’t for this organization, I would not be nearly as educated as I am today about the terrible inequalities experienced by women around the world, particularly when it comes to access to education.

    We often hear how women are underrepresented in the STEM fields, but as a musician in a similarly male-dominated field, I see every day how underrepresented women are in composition, conducting, performance, music theory, and musicology. We need organizations like Woodland Worldwide to uplift the young women in our communities to help them realize their potential and follow their passions. What is more inclusive than equal representation?

    Woodland Worldwide helps us open our small-town-Connecticut eyes to the global community, and how we can each do our part to make the world a more equal and peaceful place. I wish them all the best at their event!

  4. By far one of my favorite 5Ks to run! The race kicks off with live music, great activities for the kids, and an energy that will inspire you. I couldn’t ask for better views while running, and the post-race celebration is the best of any 5K I’ve been to. Not only do they have great food, more fantastic music, and awards for runners (the running bling is top-notch!), but the race-entry fee goes directly to funding human rights organizations and empowering students to become leaders. Can’t wait for October 11th!

  5. Finally! Finally someone has had the temerity to call out Woodland Worldwide, and Woodland Regional High School itself, for its 15 year mission of spreading its agenda. Tolerance, education, empathy, social justice, love – does this type of agenda belong in a place charged with helping young people become better citizens? For far too long, since the school has opened, in fact, the students of Woodland have been taught that, through organizations like Woodland Worldwide, they owe their community a debt of community service, and that becoming a Woodland graduate not only requires learning in the classroom, but learning about their societies and the world. It’s about time someone pointed out that the world is changing, becoming more global, and that our school needs to become more inclusive! It’s apparently not enough that this very idea is embedded into our school’s and WW’s mission statements and statements of core beliefs – we need to embed it into the names of every one of our clubs and organizations!

    And what about the boys and young men? When will their time come to be represented? With the exception of being members of Woodland Worldwide, and having male faculty counted as members of WW, and having equal representation in the awards category of the Run, and dominating the included photo in this Citizens News story, when else will they be included in these affairs? How more could WW have included last year’s Modern Male award winner, Ryan Mathews, who was also honored for his endless charity work here in the Valley? A separate award, for a male? What are those women thinking?!

    If only they had thought to accept this changing world, and worked to include EVERYONE, including the pseudonymous and the misinformed of the community, instead of creating a group that hates intolerance and is bigoted against injustice, then Woodland Worldwide would truly be onto something. Instead, they will have to content themselves with helping student after student become better students, better citizens, and better people, who make Woodland, Region 16, and the Valley proud, and continue to do great things in college and afterwards. Need proof? Just ask the dozens and dozens of alumni who take time out of their busy college and work schedules to return for the Run how many ways they are making their communities better. Some may even be majoring in Porcine Apparel.

    I’m your huckleberry …

  6. “To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.”
    Tony Dorsett

    Run4Rev epitomizes this very sentiment! I love it! It is wonderful to see an event that is so much fun for everyone AND it demonstrates how each one of us has the power to extend a helping hand. To all those out there who do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do…this run is for you!

  7. I look forward to Run4Rev every year! It’s a wonderful event for the Reg 16 community to gather and share such an empowering and powerful message– and to raise funds and awareness for organizations seeking to improve the lives of people all over the world.

  8. Every year Woodland Worldwide invests a large amount of their time and energy to put together Run for a Revolution. I’ve attended the event numerous times with my friends and family; the experience is nothing less than incredible. I am very proud to have graduated from a high school that is actively helping others not only locally but around the world. Not to mention, the organization gives students life changing opportunities. Well done!

  9. As both a student member and now an alumnus of Woodland Worldwide, I am so excited for this event. It’s such a fun and exciting tradition. This is the most loving and accepting group and I couldn’t be prouder of how far we’ve come in just a few short years. I love seeing the entire community come together to support such an important cause. They have taught me not only how to be a better man, but how to be a better global citizen. Much love and support, can’t wait to see the turnout next weekend!

  10. Last year the group donated money to 2 local families, and in both instances it supported males in those families. And every year the group uses funds raised to supply scholarship money for Woodland students and graduates.

  11. Why is a club that is exclusive to its agenda allowed to be promoted in a public school? What about the issues addressed that are affecting the children in our communities? Worldwide? How about Naugatuck Valley wide? And what about our boys? This group has pushed their agenda down the throats of the Woodland community while removing the word “Women” from their group title. You can put a pig in a dress and it is still a pig. Our school system needs to be INCLUSIVE as the world changes and we see isolation groups creating hate and bigotry. How about we run for EVERYONE!!!