With the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) of Minnesota in mind, Hamline management students are running, walking and rolling out into the Twin Cities community with their 7th annual Hamline Cares 5K Run/Walk/Roll.

The 5K event is something planned, advertised and completed all by students taking foundations of management (MGMT 3100), with only having professor assistance at the very beginning stages of planning.

“Every year, the students do an event where they collaborate with an outside partner,” Professor of MGMT 3100 Peggy Andrews said. “And seven years ago, there were some veterans in the class [who wanted] to collaborate with the Minnesota DAV.”

Andrews elaborated, saying how the event was so successful that the class has continued to partner with the DAV every April as a part of their class.

“The students learn about all the tools and processes for planning, organizing, leading and controlling, and then they apply those to putting on this event,” Andrews said.

This course now allows students to gain the C letter for the Hamline plan based on their extensive collaboration and teamwork done in the class. While the professors provide the framework, guidelines and rules, students step in to do the rest.

“The students do it all,” Andrews said.

One of the student CEOs of the event, first-year Rayven Christenson, expressed her excitement for the event and for the organization being sponsored.

“[The DAV] is a really good thing to bring awareness to,” Christenson said. “There are so many disabled veterans, and they are trying to get aid from the [United States Department of Veterans Affairs] and they are not getting it there.”

The goal of this organization is to provide services for all Minnesotans who became disabled while serving the country, funded through donations and fundraising done with events like this.

Though the 5K is planned by students, they were required to advertise outside of the Hamline community up until a week before the event as a way to reach more people, which included 70 businesses in the Twin Cities that have all advertised in years past.

“We are focusing on people who want to go on runs, [since] students are more like Netflix and studying,” Christenson said. “So it would be really hard for us to gain students, especially with their time commitments.”

As the date approaches though, students are now able and invited to sign up for the event by going to runsignup.com/Race/MN/SaintPaul/hamlinecares5kfor5k or registering at the event.

Hamline Cares 5K Run/Walk/Roll takes place on Sunday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The cost to participate is $25.00 for 18 and up, $15.00 for ages 11-17 and veterans with a valid I.D., $8.00 for ages 4- 10 and free those under 3 years old.

Participants can expect food, a silent auction and tons of fun all in Phalen Regional park that Christenson describes as beautiful and a great place to hang out or toss around a ball.

“[Come] enjoy the outdoors, and know that it is going towards something that a lot of people do not really know about,” Christenson said.