President of the Bloomsburg University Student Veteran Association (BUSVA), Tanner Donahue, is welcoming students and locals to participate in BUSVA’s second annual 5K running event.
Started by the previous club president, Tennyson Scott, the event is a collaboration with Bloomsburg University Police Department (BUPD) to bring the Bloomsburg community together.
“We just try to interact with local high schools, middle schools, teams here in college, track teams, cross-country teams, to inspire a little bit of fun as the weather warms up,” Tanner stated.
The event is one of many that BUSVA hosts to help veterans ease back into civilian life and help Bloomsburg students get to know the military community better. In the past they’ve hosted cookouts, fundraisers, suicide awareness walks and two well known Bloomsburg University, the Black Hawk Landing and 9/11 memorial.
BUSVA also hosts deployment boxes for deployed units. During the fall semester, they send a mass package to overseas units in correlation with National Day of the Deployed. BUSVA accepts donations of any kind from the Bloomsburg community that wish to give support to troops around the world. Donations can be sent to the ROTC office.
“There is not a significant meaning to a 5K. It was just a smaller event. We realized everybody is passionate about exercising, working out, typically coming from the military, and a lot of the ROTC people that we work with as well as the community.”
The 5k is set to take place on May 2 at 10 a.m. on the rugby field with step off being at 11 a.m. Participants must be registered prior to step off. Food and drink will be provided by both BUSVA and BUPD. All age brackets are welcomed with the top runners in each bracket receiving bronze, silver, and gold medals. The event concludes when all runners have crossed the finish line. Sign up flyers can be found outside the ROTC and Military and Veteran Resource office.
In his closing remarks, Tanner Donahue stated the main goal of the 5K and the mission of BUSVA. “It’s mainly to build connections with the community and also build connections with different offices around campus. It’s about relationships and inspiring people to come out, have some fun, and have a good workout. If people want to get more acclimated to more cultures around campus, build relationships with people that are students, faculty, prior military, active military, or non-military at all. I’d say BUSVA is the one-stop shop club that everyone should be involved in.”