From January 2025, I have been running 5K consistently as a prepared for my first official 5K run with the Toronto Marathon. With the support of many individuals, I was able to raise approximately 9K for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto. After the race, I feel motivated to keep up raising funds and awareness on issues affecting youth particularly Black youth.

In late 2024, there was a raise in the number of young Black boys missing in Toronto. While each individual situation is unique, many had an eerie connection to being lured and taken to places like Sudbury and Thunder Bay to engage in illegal activity by organized groups of gangs. These young men are being targeted at very young ages because these organized groups know under the Canadian Youth Justice act that they would get lesser sentences than older gang members.

If a youth wanted to get back home to Toronto, the distance from a place such as Sudbury is approximately 400 km. So I am planning to run 80 days of 5 K to raise awareness that it would take a kid 80 days (almost 3 months of running every day) to get back home to Toronto.

We can help to prevent this. Did you know that if a young person has 3 caring adults in their life, they are more likely to resist danger and notice when an interaction is unhealthy.

These gangs lurk around to see if a kid is being unsupervised frequently. When they see that these youth have a mentor or caring adult in their life coming to spend time with them, the less likely they would engage with them.

When a young person is being connected to resources, the less likely they would get involved. Funding received from this go fund me will support BBBST's effort but would also support other Black grassroot organizations doing preventative work like employment programs and tutoring programs for Black youth.