The nonprofit organization, Run Your City, will be starting a chapter at the University of Massachusetts, with the help of collegiate athletes from the UMass track and field team.
Founded in 2018, the organization aims to “make running fun and accessible for kids everywhere” by hosting free, team-based practices and races at various universities for kids of all ages and skill levels.
Ella Bosselman and Rylee Shunney, two junior kinesiology majors on the UMass track and field team, were contacted by the CEO of Run Your City, Mary Blankemeier, about starting a chapter. The pair serve as co-presidents of the chapter.
“It really excited both of us,” Bosselman said. “It was just something that we both felt really passionate about.”
Shunney and Bosselman said they are given a visible platform as athletes and are often looked to as leaders within the community. This, according to Shunney and Bosselman, leads them to wield that influence in a positive way, including with initiatives like Run Your City.
“Having the opportunity to work with kids and this organization has shown us how lucky we are and how much of an impact we can make on people’s lives,” Bosselman said.
The first step was recruiting the leadership team. According to Bosselman, they recruited six other teammates to hold positions such as treasurer, impact, season planning, donor/sponsor relations, public relations/social media and community engagement.
“After we got our leadership team together, our biggest thing was first outreach to be able to find kids to make sure that we could get enough people to get our program running,” Bosselman said.
The pair weren’t alone in launching the organization. Sierra Puleo, a former James Madison University track and field athlete, has played a big role in launching the UMass chapter with Bosselman and Shunney. Puleo previously founded the school’s Run Your City chapter before joining the organization’s U.S. operations team, where she oversees all 80-plus chapters across the nation.
According to Puleo, she assists Bosselman and Shunney with “the logistical side of things,” including sign-ups, fundraisers, insurance, questions with the university and anything else involved with launching the chapter.
While Amherst College has had a Run Your City chapter since the fall of 2025, Puleo says that the goal of the UMass and Amherst College chapters is to build off each other, despite being geographically close.
“[It] will allow us to be able to impact more kids if some of the weekends for one chapter work better than the other,” Puleo said.
According to Shunney, 85 kids have already signed up for this upcoming spring.
Shunney and Bosselman said that a typical session with the kids will alternate between practices and races. Practices will consist of small drills like hurdles, meter dashes and sport-based games depending on the age group and skill level.
“We may have the opportunity for an Olympian to attend one of our sessions, which would be an exciting experience for the kids,” Shunney said.
The first event for the UMass chapter is set to take place onMarch 22 at the UMass Track & Field Complex.
Lacey Carciero can be reached at [email protected].
