North Central Area Credit Union (NCACU) hosted their 3rd Annual Superhero September event to raise funds for two Child Assessment Centers in Northern Michigan. Previously, NCACU hosted an in-branch donation drive and a Super Main Event where kids and families could mingle with Superheroes from the League of Enchantment of Lansing. This year, due to COVID, the event had to be changed to a Virtual 5K Race and interaction with Superheroes was limited to motivational videos posted by members of the League of Enchantment. Local Businesses sponsored the event to help raise funds, NCACU had an in-branch donation drive, and the virtual run had 108 participants who walked, ran or rolled their way to a 5k on their own time and in their own neighborhoods to earn a participant t-shirt and medal.
The youngest participant was Bryce, 3, who participated with his family, and we had several participants in our senior division. Weyerhaeuser of Grayling had 5 teams participate and one runner from the Detroit area ran the equivalent of a half-marathon. The average age of the runners was 42.
“It was so exciting to see the numbers tick upward as we watched registration get larger and larger. We had no idea what to expect with a virtual event, especially in a time when many are cutting back on entertainment and activities,” said Tracy Wilson, Director of Marketing for NCACU, “We are thrilled with how well the event did and are already talking about how we can make it better next year if we are not allowed to return to face-to-face events.”
Superhero mythology sees sometimes ordinary people who overcome terrible circumstances to become heroes and help others be strong enough to overcome their own challenges, and NCACU builds on the “people helping people” philosophy to bring Superhero September to life to support the mission of Child Assessment Centers. NCACU presented a check for $14,525 to the Northern Michigan Children’s Assessment Center and $2,200 to the CAN Council of the Bay Area for their Arenac County Office.
