Back in August a group of us here in Westerly, Rhode Island got together to take part in our first monthly 5K. I had seen an ad on Facebook for a "Wine 5K"...the premise being you get a group of people together to do a 5K and then celebrate afterwards with drinks! So my friends and I registered online to get some swag and made donations to a cancer organization called the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation.
We had a blast and decided to make this a monthly event!
So we decided that each month one of us would choose a theme and a good cause to donate to. September was for the Alzheimer Foundation as one of the girls in the group lost her dad to that disease. October was for local girl, who is battling leukemia and just had a stem cell transplant. November was for the Colon Cancer Foundation as one of the girls has a brother out in Colorado who was battling colon cancer, and sadly lost that fight in February. RIP John.  In December we did a toy drive for the local Jonnycake Center. January was for the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation as one of the girls lost her mom to breast cancer. February was for the local nonprofit organization, the Warm Center. To date we have raised over $2,500!
So as you can see, our plan was to have gotten together for laughs, exercise and of course shenanigans for a number of good causes. August, September and October we did just that! We met at Avondale preserve, walked/ran our 5K and then shared a cocktail together! Then November rolled around and we saw a spike in Covid-19 cases. We did not let that stop us and we decided we would do our 5K's individually and then one Friday evening I drove around town with my friend Mary and we delivered a special cocktail to each one of the girls in the group! So now our monthly 5K looks and feels a little different. But still we prevail! We did the same thing for December, January and February, and until it is safe for us all to congregate we will continue with this format each month.
I created our own private Facebook page where we post selfies of us doing our 5K and drinking our cocktails! And this is where we update everyone on what the theme is for each month and when the cocktail delivery will take place!
My mom is really involved with the Irish Cancer Society and their annual Daffodil Day fundraiser every March. So needless to say that was cancelled last year and this year also. So for our March 5K we will be donating to the Irish Cancer Society in memory of my brother Barry!