FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Takara Pierce
takara@blackalderllc.com

Carrying forward the legacy of Black women who have long walked for change, GirlTREK — the largest public health and wellness organization of its kind — calls on families and chosen families across America to join the 2025 Black Family 5K.

November 2025 — GirlTREK, the largest public health and wellness organization rooted in the legacy of Black women who walk for change, invites families and chosen families across the United States to join the 2025 Black Family 5K. Taking place Thanksgiving weekend, November 27 through November 30, the Black Family 5K transforms neighborhoods nationwide into spaces for connection, remembrance, and renewal.

“The Black Family 5K is about more than walking,” said Vanessa Garrison, co-founder and co-executive director of GirlTREK. “It is about reclaiming health, joy, and community at a time when so many of us are feeling the heaviness of these times. It is a way for us to choose connection over isolation, care over consumption, and togetherness over the noise. Every step we take together is a declaration that our well-being still matters.”

The Black Family 5K is simple: families and friends across the country take a walk together during Thanksgiving weekend with no central gathering or entry fee. Each family chooses its own route, sets its own pace, and participates in a shared tradition rooted in love, reflection, and joy.

A Walk for Everyone

The Black Family 5K welcomes all kinds of families and communities, from church groups and coworkers to neighbors and chosen kin. Some families walk right after Thanksgiving dinner, while others step out on Friday as a joyful alternative to Black Friday shopping.

The official Black Family 5K Toolkit offers guidance on planning your route, making the walk accessible for elders and children, and keeping everyone hydrated and safe. “This is an event designed for everyone, from babies to great-grandparents,” said Garrison. “It reminds us that community health begins with togetherness.”

How to Join

Families are encouraged to sign up at BlackFamily5K.com to receive updates, planning tools, and access to the 2025 Black Family 5K Toolkit. Participants can also:

• Download the new Black Family 5K App (BETA) to track miles, earn badges, and celebrate progress

• After registration, you’ll receive an email with download instructions. Log in using your registration email to start tracking your walk.

• Listen to the curated Black Family 5K Playlist or the award-winning Black History Bootcamp podcast while walking

• Use the official Instagram filter and tag posts with #BlackFamily5K and @GirlTREK to be featured

Building Joy and Legacy

The 2025 Black Family 5K Toolkit includes creative ways to make the walk meaningful, from honoring ancestors to celebrating the first elder to cross the finish line. Families are encouraged to share stories, capture photos, and cheer for one another at every step.

“The Black Family 5K is not about speed or competition,” said Garrison. “It is about connection. It is about walking, talking, laughing, remembering, and imagining what health and joy can look like together.”

Now in its fifth year, the Black Family 5K continues GirlTREK’s mission to inspire one million Black women to walk daily in the name of healing and liberation. Each Thanksgiving weekend, this growing tradition becomes a nationwide reminder that the best kind of legacy is love in motion.

This is not just a campaign. It is a movement of wellness, solidarity, and possibility.

For interviews, photos, or more information, contact Takara Pierce at takara@blackalderllc.com.

Dear Family,

This week, Black History Bootcamp returned at exactly the right moment.

In a week when emotions ran high and the weight of the world felt especially heavy, we had each other. We had space, each day at noon ET, to feel all of the feelings, to process the disappointment and grief, and to acknowledge a rage that as one woman called in and said, “felt hotter than fish grease.” 

The divine timing of Black History Bootcamp returning now, at this moment, is not a coincidence. This is alignment. This is the sacred precision of a movement that is listening to Black women and knows what we need. 

For those who walked each day of Bootcamp with us and who plan to walk today—five days this week, at least thirty minutes a day (and we’ve been pushing an hour, we know!)—you’ve earned what we at GirlTREK call a Warrior Week. Congratulations! 

Use this link to directly share your hard-earned badge (above) on social media and encourage others to join you next week.

This first week of Black History Bootcamp didn’t just help create a habit, it asked us to wrestle with questions that challenge us to think deeply about the world we’re building:

• Do we raise a fist or open a hand?

• Should we be radical or responsible?

• Do we choose sisterhood or solitude?

• Can we be ratchet and respectable?

What we’ve learned together this week is that there are no easy answers and that freedom lies in the both/and of life. And where do these questions lead us? To action. To creating something real and lasting. If you’ve missed an episode, don’t worry, you can listen to the full week here. 

And at the end of this 21-day journey, on the weekend of Thanksgiving, we’ll come together in celebration, with our families, our friends, and our neighbors, for The Black Family 5K! 

WHAT: Since 2016, the Black Family 5K has been one of GirlTREK’s proudest traditions. Born in neighborhoods across the country, it’s a celebration of family, health, and legacy. 

WHEN: You can organize your family anytime over Thanksgiving weekend. Saturday, November 30th, Day 21 of Black History Bootcamp, will be dedicated to you and will serve as an end-of-season celebration for the movement. Plan to tune in live at 12PM ET. 

WHERE: From wherever you are, with your blood family, or chosen. It’s a DIY race and everything you need including race bibs and shirts can be found here. Please note, shirts must be ordered by November 15th to get them by Thanksgiving. 

1. Rally your crew. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors to walk with you. 

2. Order Black Family 5K T-shirts for you and your family to wear as you walk.

3. Show up. Walk, run, or roll with us in neighborhoods across the world.

This week, we walked through fire and we did not burn. Instead, we became brighter, lighting the path for many more women to join us. 

Thank you for walking with us. 

P.S. Today’s episode, Religion or Ritual, is live right now, noon ET. Don’t miss it. Join us (646) 876-9923 Code: 734464325#. 

With love and gratitude,

V&M