Rebekah Cramer's fundraiser for Vibha Striders

Fundraising for Vibha Striders 2024

I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with running for the past 18 years, but it’s a love that I always come back to, eventually. Everytime I break, bruise, or tear something (which, as you know, happens often) I take a sabbatical until one day, I just have to start running again. At the beginning of the pandemic, my love affair with running was at its peak. It felt like a lifeline to normalcy, something familiar to cling to amidst the chaos. However, once I began grad school, other priorities crowded out that running time.

Four years later, in spring this year, I am graduating with an M.S. in Integrative and Functional Nutrition with a minor in Mind-Body Medicine. As my program is nearing its end I have begun to consider what was pushed to the side to get through grad school. Running is at the top of that list. Which is why I decided to celebrate my graduation by running with the non-profit, Vibha, through their half marathon training program. Since their inception, Vibha's vision has been to ensure every child has access to quality education. To date, they have been able to provide educational opportunities for over 2.3 million children. Every runner they train makes a commitment to raise a minimum of $1000 during the course of their training, sufficient to support 28 children for a school year.

Since joining Vibha’s training program in February, I have been consistently running four times per week alongside mentors, coaches, and teammates. Beyond running, what I love about Vibha is all the big and small ways this mentor group shows up for one another. We celebrate the new distances run as well as birthdays and anniversaries. We exchange advice on running shoes and the best sports bras. We share chai, coffee, cakes, and plates of idly. But most importantly, we show up for each sunrise run, tired and wishing we were still in bed, so that none of us has to do this alone.

And in this way, I am reminded of all of the coaches, mentors, and teachers who have supported my education up to this point. Those who have nurtured curiosity, pushed for excellence, and demanded their students take up space. Because education isn’t just about what you learn in the classroom, it is about the community you develop to support you through the big and small things.

So in celebration of closing this chapter of my own educational journey, I am happy to be supporting an organization that works to ensure children have access to education. Because education should be a right, not a privilege. I invite you to join me in securing this right for even more children. 

$50 Funds rehabilitation for a child with a learning disability

$100 Funds educational materials for five children

$200 Funds libraries with pictorial books in two villages

$500 Funds immunizations for 15 children

$1000 Funds a small education center for 28 children

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Vibha is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a vision to ensure that every child attains his or her right to quality public education. Our mission is to enable scalable solutions to drive excellence in the quality of public education. Vibha uses Seed, Scale, and Grow model to ensure that a ‘scalable, sustainable and replicable’ end result is achievable and continue to extend the reach of our solutions with quick turnaround time. One of our core principles is to ensure that every project makes optimal use of the resources and funds available, to develop a community centered on innovative thinking.

https://vibha.org/

About Vibha

Vibha's vision is to ensure every underprivileged attains quality education. Vibha educates, enables and empowers, individuals who wish to make a positive impact on the lives of underprivileged children. Since our inception in 1991, Vibha has supported more than 250 projects in India and 10 projects in the US. As a result, Vibha has been able to reach out to and provide opportunities for over 2.3 million underprivileged children. Currently, Vibha supports 15 projects in India and 3 projects in the US.

All donations to Vibha are tax deductible. Vibha is a 501(c)(3) organization, registered in the USA in the State of New Jersey. Vibha's Tax ID is 22-3122761.