In its second year in Columbus, the Butterfly Run will support the national On Our Sleeves™ movement.
WHAT
The Butterfly Run presented by the Big Lots Foundation is a 5K run/walk family-fitness event created to help bring awareness to childhood behavioral and mental health. In its second year in Columbus, the Butterfly Run will support the national On Our Sleeves™ movement. Participants will help champion the platform’s goal of ending the stigma by raising awareness and advocacy about the one in five children living across America with a mental illness.
WHO
- Niki Shafer, senior vice president of Outreach, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation
- Bruce Thorn, CEO of Big Lots and Jeremy Ball, vice president, Corporate Philanthropy & Events, Big Lots Foundation
- Julia Paxton, On Our Sleeves™ patient ambassador
WHEN
Saturday, Sept. 14 at 7:30 a.m. Participants can sign-up at butterflyrun.org. The Butterfly Run will feature a 100-meter kid’s dash followed by the 5K run/walk. There will be pre-race festivities and music in Butterfly Village. The cost for the kid’s dash is $20 and $40 for the 5K.
WHERE
Alum Creek Park North, 221 West Main Street, Westerville, Ohio.
Parking is available at the Senior Center/COTA lot on Main St., and surrounding public lots along Main St. or near uptown Westerville.
WHY
We are in a national crisis as one in five children live with a mental illness, and only half of those get the treatment they need. Furthermore, 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses begin by age 14 and suicide is the second-leading cause of death among persons aged 15-24 and third among persons aged 10-14. Fueled by the experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, On Our Sleeves™ was launched nationally in May on childhood mental health day after debuting locally on world mental health day in October 2018. This movement symbolizes how we don’t know what a child might be going through because we can’t see it on the outside and it has continued to gain momentum thanks to business partners like Big Lots and the Big Lots Foundation.
About On Our Sleeves™
Because kids don’t wear their thoughts on their sleeves, we don’t know what they might be going through. That’s why Nationwide Children’s Hospital launched On Our Sleeves™ to build a community of support for children living with mental illness through advocacy, education and fundraising for much-needed research. For more information about children’s mental health and to help break the silence and stigma around mental illness, visit OnOurSleeves.org.
Media Contact:
Danielle Warner
Email: Danielle.Warner@nationwidechildrens.org
Contact Number: 614-209-5994