DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — What if you could combine your time outside exercising with helping a local business?
That is the motivation behind the Qua-RUN-tine To Change Lives challenge. Jason and Gina Anguiano, who run several charity races in Douglas County like the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey ROCK Trot, created the challenge. Anybody is welcome to register for it, and the couple uses the registration fees to buy the gift cards from local businesses that are in turn given away to participants.
“The way it works is we collect all the funds and then once a week we make purchases of gift cards," Jason said. "They can be digital, it can be physical, and we give them away. We get people signed up and all the money from registration go back into Colorado small businesses and the Colorado COVID-19 relief fund.”
Jason says this virtual challenge keeps the race community connected and helps local businesses stay afloat. And this is not just for the race community. Anybody can participate in their neighborhood on a treadmill or walk around your house. Even dogs can register and participate.
“Right now, we have 300 people signed up, believe it or not," Jason said. "We just launched this a few days ago and we’ve already got 300 people signed up so we’re really happy about that. We’ve got about 550 people signed up on our Facebook group."
More participants means more help for small businesses. In addition, he said some people are paying a registration fee for for somebody else to participate, like a person who had lost their job.
Jason and Gina are hoping leaders in other Colorado cities will step forward to get people signed up in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and everywhere in between to help out even more small businesses across Colorado.
Learn more on the challenge's website here or Facebook page here.
