“Active Southern West Virginia takes great pride in its Community Captains. We strongly believe that without them our mission would be impossible. They are dedicated to making their communities a happier, healthier, and an altogether brighter place to live. We are forever grateful for their service and passion for creating equal and free opportunities for their community members to participate in. This month we are highlighting the accomplishments of our Beckley Community Captain, Missy Burleson, to both show appreciation for her service and to showcase a little bit of her story. We hope it will resonate with some of our readers and motivate them to start their journey toward a healthy and active lifestyle change.
Missy is the President of the Southern West Virginia Road Runners Club. She is also the chapter leader of the Beckley WV Moms Run This Town Club and a member of the Idiots Running Club based in Missouri. She has been running for three years and is currently on a 475 day running streak. She started to lose weight; to date she has lost 75 pounds and believes that if she can do it anyone can. She is stepping into this role to be a mentor for members of her community in hopes that she can serve as a support system for those also trying to live a healthy lifestyle.
Missy displays a passion for helping beginners get into running. On top of being a Community Captain, Missy also serves as the MacArthur Training Team Coach helping ladies in the community train up to their first 5K.
They have been training for 4 weeks now and are only a few days away from their practice race, the Raleigh County 4H 5K and 8 weeks away from their final race, the Beckley Rocket Run 5K.
On August 15th, Missy is holding a 5K to benefit the Raleigh County 4H, called the Raleigh County 4H 5K. Active Southern West Virginia has partnered with this event to provide a 1 mile Kids Run after the 5K. So make sure to bring your capes and run with your kids! Follow the links to registration.
Missy has started a weekly running group called Family Fun Mile that meets every Friday at 6:30 pm at the YMCA Soccer Complex. The purpose of this group is to get beginners running by setting the goal of running the loop around the soccer fields, which is one mile. Everyone is welcome to come, avid runners can cheer on the beginners and enjoy a light day. Bring your friends and family, they meet at the benches near the restrooms.
We are so proud of Missy’s dedication for her community and cannot wait to see how Family Fun Mile grows.” -August 11, 2015
Missy now leads the Beckley Friday Mile Running Group with Community Co-Captain Charlene Diggs every Friday at 6:30pm starting from the front parking lot at the YMCA Soccer Complex. Anyone is welcome (especially beginners) to join the group at any time and encouraged to bring a friend! Keep up with the Active Southern West Virginia Bulletin Board Facebook group for updates/cancellations and like the Beckley Friday Mile Facebook page to stay more directly connected with the group.
You can also stay connected with us by liking our main Facebook page Active Southern West Virginia, keeping up with our Events Calendar at activeswv.org, and following us on Twitter & Instagram (@activeswv).
We are so happy to have Charlene and Missy on our team and are still recruiting Community Captains in the communities of Shady Spring, Stanaford, Bradley, Mabscott, Rhodell, Daniels, Lester, Whitesville and all points in between! Contact us at [email protected] or 304-254-8488
to get started!
