Image: Picture of event runners (photo by Billy Mills)
The West Chester University (WCU) athletics department held its sixth annual Rams Let’s Walk event on Sunday, Sept. 22. On a cloudy but beautiful day on campus, the WCU community came together to help spread awareness about mental health. The event aims to raise funds for WCU student-athletes, providing them with new and additional mental health resources and initiatives, including suicide prevention and education regarding mental health. WCU students, staff, family, friends and residents could take part in a 5k run or a one-mile walk. With that, student-athletes from numerous sports came out to support those who participated in the event.
Student-Athlete Success (SAS) graduate assistant, Allyson “Ally” Meakim, took the lead for this fall’s successful event. Ally attended Ursinus College as a softball player where she was campus captain for The Hidden Opponent, a member of the Ursinus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and a part of the Emerging Leaders Academy. At WCU, she is serving first-year students as a graduate assistant. The Quad was fortunate enough to catch up with Ally and ask about her experience with Rams Let’s Walk.
Q: How did Rams Let’s Walk begin?
A: The event began six years ago, when field hockey player, Kaitlin Hatch, and gymnast, Jessica Meakim, came together and thought this would be a great cause to raise funds for student-athlete mental health here at WCU.
Q: How has the event done in the past?
Meakim: Every year, the event has grown a little bigger. This is our sixth annual Rams Let’s Walk. Typically, we have raffle tables and campus organizations such as The Hidden Opponent, Team Impact, the counseling center and Lax 4 Life. These groups come out to table and spread awareness and give out information to all of the runners and walkers.
First-time SAS graduate assistants, Jordyn Dupes and Trey Blair, also spoke with The Quad about their experience with Rams Let’s Walk this year.
Q: How was this year’s event?
Dupes: This year’s event was awesome and we had a great turnout. It’s great seeing all of these athletes and individuals come out and run for a great cause such as mental health for student athletics.
Q: What do you hope for the future of Rams Let’s Walk?
Blair: For the future, I hope to continue to raise awareness for student-athlete mental health. I wish to see the same turnout that we had this year and even more for the future.
During the tail end of the event, Ally expressed her gratitude to everyone who volunteered, participated and attended. Winners of each race category received their rewards and raffle basket winners received their prizes.
“I hope that this event continues to grow and that we have a Rams Let’s Walk every single year and we can reach more and more student-athletes. I hope that we can plan more events and spread awareness for student-athlete mental health on campus,” Meakim stated.
Whether or not people are a part of the WCU athletic community, Rams Let’s Walk always brings people together for a common cause. Next year’s event will be WCU’s seventh Rams Let’s Walk. Those involved hope to bring in even more participants to help raise awareness for student-athlete mental health.
Billy Mills is a fourth-year Media and Culture major with minors in Communications and Music production.