BELTON, Texas — The Healthy Kids Running Series is a national organization, hosted out of Pennsylvania, that made its way to Belton in 2017. What started out with 187 children, has grown to 212 in just the Belton organization.
Since 2017, an organization has been added in Killeen, Round Rock, Lampasses and Jarrell. The series consists of two five-week programs, one in the spring and one in the fall. This is where children ages two-14 participate in different running challenges to win trophies and awards.
When coronavirus shut activities down across the nation, HKRS decided to go virtual so kids and their families can still participate in the challenges and then submit videos to an online portal for points.
Tanya Taylor, the Belton community coordinator, said this is a way for kids to keep some normalcy in their everyday lives.
"Because this is an individual sport it has allowed our runners to remain in their normal routine," Taylor said.
Sean O'Flaherty, who has two children in the program, said they realize now more than ever how important this is.
"Its become more of a family thing," O'Flaherty said. "My wife and I now get to participate with our kids and we still go to the park we normally would and make it a family trip so its more fun and real for the kids."
Taylor has come up with different creative ideas to keep the children engaged, including costume challenges and crazy sock day!
The challenges work like this:
While the program is already three weeks in, they are still accepting new runners, visit the HKRS website for registration information!
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