The organizer of a half-marathon run beginning at Stony Mountain Institution on Saturday says the event will include only a small number of runners, but is in support of some very good causes.
“We do the half marathon from Stony Mountain Institution to downtown Winnipeg … 21 kilometres,” Nicholson said of this weekend’s event.
“Part of that is to just bring awareness to the fact that folks who are incarcerated experience not just physical and geographic isolation — being located out of town and in a building they can’t leave — but also the emotional and social distance when they’re locked up, away from their family and friends and away from their community supports.”
Nicholson said the half-marathon is raising funds for Strengthen the Circle, an Indigenous men’s support group. It’s also raising awareness for Bar None Winnipeg, which provides a rideshare program for people who want to visit loved ones in out-of-town jails or prisons, like Stony Mountain.
“There’s a lot of reasons that people might be incarcerated and it’s certainly not as simple as, ‘this is a bad person’ or ‘this person has done a terrible thing,'” she said.
“Because of the stigma that faces people who are incarcerated, when people are coming out of jail, not only are they facing really, really practical issues — like probably not having a job or an apartment to return to when they get out — but they might also be facing the weight of that stigma as well.”
As of Friday morning, the event had fundraised just over $4,000 — more than double its initial $2,000 goal.