NEWS

Ele's Race 5K: Running to help grieving children

Matt Mencarini
Lansing State Journal

OKEMOS - More than 900 runners lined up in front of the Jackson National Life Insurance building this morning and at the stroke of 8 am. took off running.

Runners take off at the start during the Ele’s Race 5K Run/Walk on Saturday, July 23, 2016 at the Jackson National Life Insurance Company headquarters in Okemos. Ele's Place is a nonprofit organization which helps grieving children and families through peer support group programs.

Just more than 15 minutes later the first of them had returned, followed by a steady stream of runners taking part in the annual Ele's Race 5K to benefit the local nonprofit that supports grieving children and their families.

The race is Ele's Place's second largest annual fundraiser and was expected to bring in more than $140,000, said Managing Director Kate Powers.

"We know that children who have unresolved grief have other issues that they struggle with throughout their lives — things like truancy, trouble sleeping (and) can go all the way to things like drug abuse and even suicidal ideation," she said. "So working with those kids and their families to help them work through that grief as opposed to letting it sit there, we know that that helps them.

"That's really the importance of what we do."

The organization started in Lansing 25 years ago and now has four locations — Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and the newest location in Flint, which opened last year. Ele's Place serves more than 2,500 children and families each year, Powers said, with 1,000 in Lansing. The group also works in about 39 schools in Greater Lansing area.

It costs about $500 for one child to receive a year's worth of programming at Ele's Place, Powers said.

Danielle Robinson, director of corporate social responsibility at Jackson National, said it's the 11th year the company has hosted the 5K at its campus. She added that the sheer number of children Ele's Place has helped in 25 years and the staff's expertise show its importance to the community.

"When people buy life insurance they're usually thinking of their kids," Robinson said. "They're thinking about their families and how to prepare for them and provide for them. And so partnering with Ele's Place was a natural for us to help support families involved in a really sad time, a time that they weren't expecting."

Contact Matt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter@MattMencarini.

More info

Go to www.elesplace.org or call 482-1315 for more information about Ele's Place in Lansing.