Latin Runners!

Growing out of relationships developed at the Aldergrove Neighbourhood Services’ Spanish Family Power weekly drop-in program, the Latin Runners! Group formed by Lluvia Meneses, now has 10 locations, 15 leaders, 230 potential runners, and is growing like wildfire! Latin Runners! has been short listed for funding to help with training for more leaders and, as well, Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) are partnering with Latin Runners! to organize their closing race for the season.

From their Project Coordinator…

“Latin Runners is a project that recruits women who have never being active. We follow a 13-week 'learn to run' program with a 5k to10k goal. It started when I first raised the question of “who wants to go for a run with me?” in Family Power, a Spanish community based program that ANS offers. The first session started with 9 participants on June 25th in Langley. Two months later it expanded to New West, Coquitlam and Abbotsford. We are now becoming bigger and gaining popularity, specifically within the Latin population in Vancouver and the surrounding areas. All women are welcome to join us as long as they feel attracted to the Latin culture. Part of the success of the group is that participants are finding a lot of emotional support. In LR they have found a 'sense of belonging'. The philosophy of LR is: 'Always run in company, using a technique and having a goal in mind'. In LR we truly believe that we are changing people’s lives, not to mention all the benefits that this is giving to the community; whole families are getting involved in this active lifestyle. '123 Latin Runners...let's ruuuuuuun”