What started as a single soccer team trying to help out has blossomed into hundreds of students running, walking, biking or swimming to raise awareness of racism along with money for Minneapolis businesses damaged by rioting after George Floyd's death.
On Wednesday, Rachel Winkey, a captain of the Blake High School girls soccer team, will meet up with 40 other players at Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail to jog and walk 8.46 miles to represent the 8 minutes, 46 seconds a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd's neck before he died.
Athletes from eight other soccer teams — Breck, Coon Rapids, Washburn in Minneapolis, Eagan, Edina, Minnetonka, Orono and Wayzata — will join the Blake Bears, exercising on their own turf for the same purpose.
The teams hope to funnel $8,460 into one GoFundMe account to give to the Lake Street Council in Minneapolis. The money will aid businesses along a devastated stretch of Lake Street as they rebuild. As of Wednesday mid-morning, the fund had raised $7,130.
Blake head girls soccer coach Kelsey Hans got the idea to have her team raise money from the UCLA women's soccer team, which ran 8.46 miles on June 8, generating tens of thousands of dollars for Black Lives Matter.
"I thought it was really neat," Hans said. "I initially thought I'd have to do most of it but [the team] was really excited about it."
Winkey, who had recently pitched in by participating in a food drive for areas hit hard by the riots, picked the Lake Street cause when she heard many businesses didn't have insurance to cover the damage.
Soon, the Blake boys team was on board, then Edina girls soccer joined in. Coon Rapids High School is having all of its sports programs participate, as are many of Orono's teams. Several metro-area soccer club teams, including Tonka Fusion, Tonka United, Minnesota Thunder Academy and Minneapolis United, are signed up, too.
"I think it's really important for kids to get involved because it allows them to be informed," Winkey said, adding that it's especially crucial when they are young and still learning. Winkey said she believes the collaboration will meet its financial goal.
Every team is meeting at a different place and time Wednesday. If students have a conflict, they can do it on their own. When done, Winkey said, they're encouraged to post a photo of themselves with the hashtag #MN846ForChange.
Hans said this project shows how passionate high school students can be.
The team is less focused on how they raise than they are on getting as many students involved as possible, she said.
Katie Aafedt, Edina High School's head girls soccer coach, said she had "total buy-in" from her players. Thirty to 40 of them will show up at 3 p.m. Wednesday, where they will alternately walk and run a 2-mile loop around Kuhlman Field, the site of their home games. The fundraiser is a way to contribute that's in the girls' wheelhouse as athletes, she said.
"It's important for these girls to see what life's like outside their own world," Aafedt said. "It forced some discussion that would have never happened otherwise."
