5K Run and Pancake Breakfast: Two Great Ways to Help GCA

From a recent article in the Asbury Park Sun: 

TOAST TO SPONSOR A CHARITY 5K RACE THIS FALL

PROCEEDS BENEFIT GLOBAL CAMPS AFRICA AND THE MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION

By Jill Bartlett

Get ready to lace up your running shoes, Asbury Park.

Toast restaurant will host a charity 5k run/walk in the city this fall that will end with a pancake breakfast after-party in Kennedy Park.

The race, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 12, will raise funds to benefit Global Camps Africa and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Restaurant owners Amy Russo and Chris Hartsgrove chose the Micheal J. Fox foundations because they both have grandparents that suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

“Parkinson’s is one of those diseases that is hereditary,” said Russo, which fueled their decision to choose the Michael J. Fox Foundation as a benefactor, since the foundation is dedicated finding a cure.

Global Camps Africa provides youth in Africa with HIV/AIDS prevention education and training through overnight and day camp experiences. The camps seek to provide the at-risk youth population in Africa with life skills education and support to encourage and promote safe adult lives, according to their website.

The funds raised for Global Camps Africa will sponsor a trip for Lisa Brodrick, a yoga instructor and 13-year Asbury Park school teacher, to travel to Global Camps Africa’s Camp Sizanani in South Africa. There, she will provide Radiant Child Yoga teacher training to the camp counselors. Radiant Child Yoga is an international program that provides yoga instructors with ways to teach children yoga and work with them to be more conscious of their inner selves, according to their website. 

“She has a huge opportunity to go and teach,” said Russo. “If I could take a month out of my life to travel to Africa for a month to help kids, I would do it.”

“It’s all about holding a space,” said Brodrick. “The children are our future. They are big souls in little bodies. What we teach them connects them back with their truth and their light within themselves so that they can live to their highest potential.”

“It’s that mind-spirit connection,” she said. “There is nothing more important than that.”

Russo hopes to make the run an annual event, and may switch the charities that benefit from year to year.

Registration details have yet to be finalized, but will be available on the Toast 5k website soon. Participants will be able to register on the website, or in-person at Toast.

The race route will be the same U.S. Track and Field certified double-loop course as the Asbury Park 5k, which begins and ends in Bradley Park opposite Convention Hall at the corner of Sunset and Ocean avenues. All participants will be invited back to Kennedy Park for a pancake breakfast after-party after their completion of the race.

Toast is located at 516 Cookman Ave. in Asbury Park.

For more information about Global Camps Africa, visit their website, or contact Lisa Brodrick at lbrodrick@gmail.com. For more information about the Michael J. Fox Foundation, visit their website.