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/Walk. This year, race participants will have the opportunity to donate to either the Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP), an organization that provides basic services to fill immediate needs in people’s lives in the Twin Cities; the Holmes' Family Scholarship Fund, or the Northwestern Research Scholarship Fund, which will be awarded annually in memory of Holmes to a Northwestern student interested in research.

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.

University 5K Walk Renamed in Honor of Northwestern Employee Killed in Bridge Collapse :

This year the walk portion of the event will be held in memory of Patrick Holmes, an exercise therapist at Northwestern who died in the I-35W bridge collapse on Aug. 1, 2007. The walk will now be known as the Patrick Holmes Memorial 5K Walk.

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 7, and Rena, age 5.

Those registered for either the walk or the run will have the option of donating and/or collecting pledges for the Holmes Children Education Fund, which will provide scholarships for the Holmes’ children’s college education.

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.”

Zwagerman said the research staff is still “going through the motions” and remembering Holmes as they come across notes written by him as he worked with patients.

“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 was part of our research family.”

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

If you would like to peldge to the Holmes's Children Education Fund, or the Northwestern Research Scholarship Fund, which will be awarded annually in memory of Holmes to a Northwestern student interested in research, you can pledge online at http://www.active.com/donate/holmesfund or mail pledges to:

Northwestern Health Sciences University
Director Patrick Holmes Memorial 5K Walk
2501 W. 84th St.
Bloomington, MN 55431

Checks can be made payable to Associated Healthcare Credit Union.