At the age of 45, Bob Kierlin started running. For some unknown reason, his 10-year-old daughter wanted to enter short road races, so Bob drove her to these events. This went on for a couple of years before he caught on to the idea of running in the same races rather than waiting at the finish line. But in all his years of running, he always found himself in the last half of the finishers of each road race. Years later, while talking with his daughters about what he would want someday as a memorial, Bob said that he would like a road race named after him in which all runners could get a trophy if they outperformed their previous best time. Later it occurred to him that it would be even better to be alive during his "memorial" race so that he could participate. So Bob made arrangements with the Winona Rotary Club to hold such a race with the proceeds going toward projects benefiting Winona. It was named "The BK5K Memorial Road Race." When the event grew beyond the limited volunteer resources of the Rotary Club, the present volunteer group took over the race management. Another change was the race date: Originally held in mid-April, the race often resulted in computer freeze-ups (not to mention volunteer freeze-ups), so it was moved to the current mid-June date.
WE are in the 23rd year, and 13th year of the kid' race with 2.5 million given out in grants now. The BK5K Road Race continues to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars which are donated through a grant process to local area youth organizations and programs that have demonstrated financial need. Funding grants are evaluated for merit and dispersed by the BK5K Youth Fund Award Committee in partnership with the Winona Community Foundation.
To offer a race for the younger age groups up to 12 years old, the BK5K added a kids race. This event will see its 12th year this year and we are as excited as the runners! Grown from roughly 30 racers to close to 400 last year, this race explodes with all the energy, excitement and smiles that the participants have. In the twelve years since we added the youth race it has shown great success, awarding over $2 million dollars to local youth organizations. We are ready and looking forward to see it grow with even more participation in the coming years.
WE are in the 23rd year, and 13th year of the kid' race with 2.5 million given out in grants now. The BK5K Road Race continues to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars which are donated through a grant process to local area youth organizations and programs that have demonstrated financial need. Funding grants are evaluated for merit and dispersed by the BK5K Youth Fund Award Committee in partnership with the Winona Community Foundation.
To offer a race for the younger age groups up to 12 years old, the BK5K added a kids race. This event will see its 12th year this year and we are as excited as the runners! Grown from roughly 30 racers to close to 400 last year, this race explodes with all the energy, excitement and smiles that the participants have. In the twelve years since we added the youth race it has shown great success, awarding over $2 million dollars to local youth organizations. We are ready and looking forward to see it grow with even more participation in the coming years.