On Sunday, April 30, a committee affiliated with Revere Community C.A.R.E. will raise awareness of mental health issues and resources with a 5K and Fun Run.The run cost adults fifteen dollars and children ten.

Guidance counselor Jenny Kirchner proposed the idea, and At Risk Student Coordinator Bonnie Simonelli and RHS senior Black Schenck have since organized the run.

“At the Senior Citizens’ Prom last year in April, the Gene Fiocca Band was playing, and all of our communities were grieving at the death of a student in Green. The band was playing in Green at a Bands in the Round to support drug awareness, so I just brought that up at our next C.A.R.E. [Chemical Abuse Reduced through Education] meeting, and Mrs. Simonelli ran with the idea,” Kirchner said.

Simonelli intends for the event to provide community members with access to available but often not publicized mental health resources.

“We were going to [raise awareness of] resources around the area for mental health and substance abuse, and we were going to have booths there. In order to get people to come to that, we thought we would add the 5K and the Fun Run to that venue, so that we will cover two things. We had a healthy day, and we will also have resources. Suppose somebody has a drug problem, or they have a family member. They will know, ‘this agency deals with that,’ and [will learn about] different resources in our community that we do not always know about,” Simonelli said.

Committee members hope to fight what they and Blake Schenck see as an important issue.

“I feel like it is a growing problem that needs to be addressed,” Schenck said.

The run occured on Revere grounds only, keeping participants off of the streets.

“We have mapped out a course, for the 5K. The one-mile Fun Run is going to be around the track, but the 5K is mapped out around the school grounds and the board office,” Simonelli said.

Schneck mentioned that participants will receive free promotional items to commemorate the run.

“Runners [got] a t-shirt and a drawstring bag with promotional items. Acme is donating food,” Schenck said.

Organizers hope that the event will take place annually and grow in subsequent years.