Two Miles An Hour
A fundraiser recap for Finleigh Zack Dance, Inc.
Dancers are elite athletes. They are required to consistently be at the top of their game. Perfection is the standard of success.
Many of them are starving to succeed, literally.
According to the National Association of Eating Disorders, 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
Dancers have a three times the risk of suffering mental health issues from this disorder.
My daughter, Finleigh Zack, is a dancer.
She is doing something about it.
She created Finleigh Zack Dance, Inc. is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization to use her art as a catalyst for transformation.
She creates opportunities for professional artists challenged with mental health issues to share their experience and voice through creative expression. Making space for dancers to talk openly is key to fighting the battle for mental health in dance and dancing is the perfect language to speak up.
I was inspired after she announced her intent to start her first project to benefit dancers with eating disorders. She also decided that 10% of all funds she raised for her project would be donated to the National Eating Disorders Association.
On April 11, 2021 I decided to help. I ran two miles every hour until I finished a marathon. During that time I matched every donation or mile ran with $20.21.
We had great support from our friends and family. We were lucky to have participants from New York, Seattle and our home in Atlanta. Together we raised $1,150.21 for Finleigh Zack Dance, Inc and ran over 40 miles total in 12 hours. With my match, we pushed her over her total funding goal of $1,300. It was a success. You can watch a video recap and interview with Finleigh on LinkedIn here.
For me, running 26.2 miles was mentally tough but no where near as tough as what some dancers have to deal with on a daily basis when it comes to eating.
I had never done anything like this before and I didn’t have much of a roadmap. The run was inspired by A Mile An Hour: A different kind of marathon which a friend had shared with me a couple weeks prior.
The fundraising process was really pretty simple because my daughter already had a place to accept donations and social media made it easy to post updates and call to action.
I realized how critical it was to have a communication plan in place before. I mostly did this on the fly during the day while I was taking a break from running. I recommend letting people know at least a week ahead of time for something like this.
The running started out easy, but the rest period kept getting shorter and shorter. My feet hurt and all I wanted was to eat the hamburgers that I cooked in between a couple runs. During the day I consumed lots of protein and water. I made sure I stretched and kept my muscles as loose as possible. I had a handful of muscle rollers that helped.
The first project that she is funding is called Messy Mind. It’s a dance film that sheds a light on eating disorders and people who have suffered from eating disorders. It’s a call to fight the urge for those illnesses to become a part of you and to rise above it.
Finleigh had been curious about how the arts industry shies away from the topic of eating disorders, and a year ago she was talking with one of her colleagues about how it would be interesting to include cake into a piece of choreography. The idea stuck and was the inspiration for the film.
The film is in production now and will be released this summer.
