Just three days left to lace up with us. June 27 is the date that matters: register by then at givebutter.com/2026-run-for-shelter and we’ll have your swag bag, your race medal, and your t-shirt waiting for you on July 11. We order all of it ahead of time based on who’s signed up, so anyone who waits until race day is rolling the dice on what’s left, and once the bags and medals and shirts are gone they’re gone. We never want to hand someone an empty table after they’ve run their heart out, so do yourself the favor and get your name in before the 27th.

We started planning this one back in the cold part of the year, when the idea of a summer morning full of people felt a long way off. Now it’s nearly here, and the thing we keep coming back to is how simple the whole arrangement is. People show up, people move, and the support that comes out of it goes straight toward keeping our shelters open and steady for the children who count on them. There’s no complicated machinery behind it. A morning of folks deciding July 11 is worth giving to something larger than themselves turns into roofs that don’t leak and kitchens that stay stocked.

For anyone wondering what they’re actually signing up for, it’s a friendly distance on a friendly course. We’ve had grandparents finish it and we’ve had kids sprint the last stretch like the finish line owed them money. You set your own pace and nobody’s checking. Some of our regulars treat it as a personal record attempt, and a good number treat it as an excuse to be outside with neighbors they only ever see at things like this. Both are exactly right.

And if running isn’t your idea of a good time, we made room for you too. You can register for the No-K, which is precisely what it sounds like: you sign up, you skip the running entirely, and you show up to cheer with a donut and coffee in hand while the rest of us sweat. Your No-K registration counts every bit as much as a finisher’s, and frankly the cheering section is where some of the best company is.

One more thing worth saying plainly: this run happens rain or shine. We’ve gone ahead through gray skies before, and some of our favorite mornings have been the drizzly ones where everybody finishes a little muddy and a lot cheerful. So check the forecast if you like, but don’t let it decide for you, because we’ll be out there either way with the coffee on and the finish line ready.

We’re hoping a hundred of you will join us this year. We’re a small ministry and we know it, so we’re not picturing a stadium, just a good honest turnout of people who care enough to give a Saturday morning to it. The honest reason we hold this every year is that the work doesn’t pause. Children arrive at our doors in the middle of hard seasons, and the shelters that take them in run on the steady generosity of people who decided, often years ago, to keep showing up. The run is one of the clearest ways we get to say thank you to that crowd and welcome new faces into it.

So here’s the ask, plainly: get your name in by June 27 so we can have your swag bag, medal, and shirt ready and waiting. Run it, walk it, or No-K it from the sidelines, rain or shine. We’ll be the ones cheering loudest at the finish.

Sign up here: givebutter.com/2026-run-for-shelter