Thank you for pledging your support!

Every year, Northwestern Health Sciences University partners with local organizations to provide an opportunity for fundraising through the Center for Diagnostic Imaging Back In Shape Run and Walk. This year, race participants will have the opportunity to donate to the Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP); the Patrick Holmes Memorial Scholarship Fund; or Cornerstone. Pledges are not required to participate in the walk or the run. You collect the pledge money that you raise.

Click here to download the pledge form.

Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People

VEAP (Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People) provides a range of basic services that fulfill an immediate need in people’s lives and position them for long-term success. VEAP has long  recognized there are people in Bloomington,  Edina, Richfield, and South Minneapolis that are low-income and in need of some help to prevent them from a financial crisis.  Based on the idea of neighbors serving neighbors, VEAP provides this critical help to our neighbors in need. In addition to pledging to help support VEAP, food donations will be accepted at the Back in Shape Run also. For each donated food item, receive a raffle ticket and the chance to win a $500 travel voucher. 

Food Services

• A five-day supply of groceries
• Baby products
• Birthday bags

Social Services

• Social work assessments and financial assistance to help or to prevent crisis
• Car repair services
• Short term counseling, referrals, advocacy and information

Transportation

• Rides for limited income seniors and people with disabilities

Seasonal Services

• Holiday toys and food
• Hot meals delivered to seniors and people with disabilities
• Back to School program
  

For more information about VEAP visit VEAP online.

Patrick Holmes Memorial Walk Named in Honor of Northwestern Employee Killed in Bridge Collapse

The walk portion of the event is held in memory of Patrick Holmes, an exercise therapist at Northwestern who died in the I-35W bridge collapse on Aug. 1, 2007.

Holmes had worked in the Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies since 2001. In 2003, he was named Rehabilitation Services Coordinator and provided therapy of rehabilitative, self-care and home exercise components of federally funded clinical trials.

Holmes is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and their two children, Gavin, age 8, and Rena, age 6.

Those registered for either the walk or the run will have the option of donating and/or collecting pledges for the Holmes Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will provide scholarships for Northwestern students interested in pursuing research as a career path.

Sarah Zwagerman, clinical research administrator who worked with Holmes in the research department, said the family-oriented race is the perfect way to remember Holmes because of his dedication to both family and physical activity.

“Pat’s family was everything to him,” she said. “It’s a nice combination of family and the rehab part of him. It’s doing something active instead of just sitting around and talking about him.”

“It’s interesting when it happened because people think it’s a co-worker, and you didn’t know him that well,” she said. “But those are the people you go to work with eight to 10 hours a day. He will always be a part of our research family.”

Holmes’ wife and children will start the walk and his parents will be present as well.

If you would like to pledge to the Patrick Holmes Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will be awarded in memory of Holmes to a Northwestern student interested in research, you can download a pledge form and mail pledges to:

Northwestern Health Sciences University
Ryan Chapman, Race Director, Holmes Memorial Walk
2501 W. 84th St.
Bloomington, MN 55431

Cornerstone

Cornerstone’s mission is to prevent domestic abuse. We provide children and adults a continuum of service that builds sustainable self-reliance and revives the human spirit. We educate, advocate and lead the way to social change.

Cornerstone is deeply committed to its mission and to the safety and well-being of the youth and families in our community. Our goal is to provide early holistic intervention and prevention services that support people of all ages to overcome the devastation of domestic abuse.

Our community consists of Bloomington, Edina, Eden Prairie, St. Louis Park and Richfield in South Hennepin County, Minnesota. Within these five communities resides a wide range of people; extremely wealthy as well as poor families, cultural diversity, the young and elderly. We will provide safe housing to anyone in imminent danger, regardless of whether or not they live in our community cities.

Cornerstone believes that to achieve our mission we must not only be committed to the safety and well-being of the families and youth in our community, we must support those families to end the generational cycle of abuse. We understand that domestic violence profoundly affects not only the lives of the victim and the perpetrator but also the children who have witnessed the abuse and have been victims themselves. Unfortunately, children who have witnessed abuse learned early on that to get what they want, violence works.

It is our goal to work towards ending this generational cycle of violence and abuse by reaching out to these young children early in the learning cycle and teach them appropriate, healthy relationship skills. If these children do get the appropriate professional services when they are young, the potential for positive behavioral change is significantly increased.

For more information about Cornerstone, visit Cornerstone online.