Ramona knows how to give a hug. Ramona also knows how to work hard. A hug from Ramona makes you feel like the center of the world, which is just encouraging to drive you to keep up with her.

Since Ramona has started with Back on My Feet she has set many goals for herself. She is interested in enrolling in the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) housekeeping training. Ramona has been working on the first step in this process by going to GED classes every week. Outside of her professional goals Ramona is focused on her miles. Every mile that Ramona adds to her total is progress forward. She is about to hit 50 miles and recently completed a 5k with Running for Answers.

Ramona helping a teammate attach a bib

Ramona is not easily deterred from the route she has planned out for herself. As the weather changed she got a case of bronchitis that put her in the hospital. Ramona is no stranger to being in the hospital as survivor of breast cancer. With two years in remission Ramona says she is very thankful for the time she has now. She has struggled with cancer as well as her own personal struggles, but you wouldn’t know it talking with her on our chilly morning runs. Her smile beams and she swells with pride talking about her family.

When asked what would she want other people to know about her or Back on My Feet she said, “There is no reason you shouldn’t go for your goals”. Ramona has encountered a lot tough times, but giving up never seems to be an option for her.

St. John’s:

With the majority of our members planning to participate in half or full marathons in the coming months, August marked the beginning of Fall race training for the St. John’s Team.

With the team logging miles at record speed this month, team coach Heather decided it was time to mix in some cross-training. Philadelphia Sports Club was generous enough to donate a SPIN room for our use one Friday morning, and former team leader of RWA, Megan Oxenford instructed the team in an intense 45 minutes of spinning, and singing to the original St. John’s requested playlist.

At the Wissahickon Wanderer’s Track Meet, St. John’s proved that training is paying off.  Bob set a new PR during his 5k race around the track, Mike P. showed us that walking is a thing of the past and he is ready to run, and the St. John’s relay team (Dan, Ron, Henry and Leonard) closed out the night with a great performance!

Sheila Dennis:

We celebrated our team’s 1^st birthday with cake and dancing. Esterlina, Lisa, and Eleanor all began classes in Philadelphia’s OIC program.  Esterlina earned her 50 mile medal and 60 mile watch. Lisa and Rhoda earned their 30 mile shirts.  Dawn, Wilma, Eleanor, and Jesse ran the 400m at the Wissahickon Wanderers Track meet. Dawn and Jesse also joined a relay medley.

Our Brother’s Place:

First, team OBP would like to give a HUGE thanks to Pete DeCarolis for serving as our team leader for the last 6 months. Pete brought a tremendous amount of dedication, patience and a genuine sense of caring to our team. He’s a terrific guy and a wonderful friend to us all. He always brings his clever sense of humor and always makes each of us happy to be living in the moment. Thanks Pete!

Our new team leader is Marisa Jones. She’s been with the team for quite a while. She’s a natural leader, someone we all predicted would eventually take the helm. We are all glad that she did! We’re looking at an active 6 months ahead of us.  Thanks you Marisa for your commitment to our team.

OBP is super excited to welcome our new res-members. Just as our team was beginning to feel like a small group, we’ve added Mequan,  Jeree, and Adam. For milestones, Lamar has already crossed the 50 mile mark while Dave F. reached 100 miles! WOW! Congrats to Dave!

We witnessed stellar performances by Olani, Lamar, Christine, Pete D., Pete S., Matt, and Sebastian at the Wissahickon Wanderers Track Meet, capped off with a 3rd place finish by Team OBP (Lamar, Christine, Matt and Pete S.) in the Distance Medley Relay! The full team will be meeting up this weekend for some roller skating, which should make for a few good laughs and memories.

New Jerusalem Now

August was another great month at NJN. After the crazy July, many of our team members enjoyed the more relaxing month of August. We participated in the track meet. We loved being able to include more of our team with the shorter events. Our ladies participated in the 400-meter relay. Dave set a personal best in the mile! Mohamed also ran in the 2 miles. Awesome work guys! We continued to keep pushing our running in our training runs. Almost everyone on the team is doing at least half of the mileage at run and the other half at a jog. We have many team members who are working towards their first 5k race.

We added several new volunteers throughout the month of August. Our fearless leader was off on vacation for much of August, so we give a big thanks out to our awesome volunteers for helping to keep our team running smoothly! We also added new team members Dan and Nikki. The new res members just reached their first 10 miles! Mereald reached 250 miles and Palmar hit 50 miles. Mohamed is also starting classes at CCP.

A sad event that affected our team was the loss of Roswell, an awesome and well respected non-res. We will miss him greatly and proudly participated in a memorial run and organized cards for his family. We will always remember this amazing person and he will always be a part of our team. Some of our residents have also dedicated future races to his memory.

As we start to move into the cooler fall weather, we are looking forward to our social events and a lot of awesome fall races which we are working on building towards and having more entries in! Come out and join us for a morning run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:40AM!

Ready, Willing, and Able:

August was a hot month for team Ready, Willing and Able, but that didn’t keep us from getting our miles in! Therion and Wardell have managed to keep their attendance at a whopping 100% while James is close behind at 99%. Both Therion and Wardell have also attended Saturday runs to help train for the ING half marathon and potentially the Philly full marathon! Maurice, our team captain, recently reached 250 miles while balancing his busy work schedule. We congratulate all of you! We recently welcomed in two new res members: Vern and Todd, who both bring an optimistic attitude and unwavering smiles to our morning circle. Lastly, Sarah stepped down from her position as team leader. Her positive spirits motivated the team and made every member feel welcome. One res member has even described her as the “Energizer Bunny” due to her upbeat attitude. We all thank you for everything that you have done!

Troy running at the Wissahickon Wanderers track meet

Troy is the standard by which all other gentlemen are measured. Troy occasionally stops by the office to keep us updated on how things are going with him. Every time he leaves he expresses thankfulness for everyone’s time. Troy will always get the last thank you even if he says as the elevator doors close as he leaves our office.

When Troy is not cheering people up around our office he is working at Oasis in the kitchen. After spending 14 weeks at the Philabundance Community Kitchen completing the culinary arts training program he quickly found employment, but Troy’s ambition does not stop there. He is currently looking for a second job in the food industry. Troy has also recently moved in with family. With steady employment he was able to furnish his new house and finally create a home.

Amidst all of Troy’s vocational accomplishments he is also an accomplished runner. In the past year Troy completed a half marathon and is currently training for upcoming fall races.

Whenever Troy visits the office I am reminded of how a simple expression of gratitude can make someone’s day. As one of our volunteers said about Troy “it only takes a short while for anyone to be impacted by Troy’s determination, spirit and dedication”.

Thanks Troy!

Despite the summer heatwave, St John’s has had a great July!  We kicked off the month with the BoMF birthday run at City Hall, had an impressive showing of support at the Fourth Annual 20in24 Relay Challenge, attended the Soul Game, and held our first St. John’s Bootcamp on the steps of the Art Museum.

The best moments for St. John’s this month undoubtedly occurred during our participation in the 20in24 Relay Challenge.  Leonard, Ron, Mike P., Malcolm and Joe completed the Bronze Relay with impressive individual times, and Chris rocked the Pajama Run coming straight from working overnight to complete his loop! Despite the heat and lack of sleep, all of our runners logged their longest distances yet and supported each other from start to finish.

Congratulations and thanks also go out to our non-res teams, lone rangers, midnight madness and pajama loop participants and volunteers!

To mix things up at the end of the month, our team coach, Heather led the team in a “St. John’s Bootcamp” on the Art Museum steps.  As a group, we ran the stairs, jump-roped, lunged, and did push-ups and sprints to get our heart rates up in a fun and unique way!

Like July, August will without a doubt be a busy month for our team.  We are planning to begin training for Fall half and full marathons, participate in a volunteer opportunity together, and keep things interesting with cross-training activities like spin class and boxing!

Res Member of the Month: Leonard

Leonard began running with St. John’s at the end of June and has been inspiring the team with his unwavering enthusiasm and dedication ever since.  As a former semi-pro football player, Leonard has applied his athletic instincts to test his endurance and push the pace during morning runs.

Always up for a challenge, Leonard ran the first loop of the 20in24 relay for the St. John’s Team, finishing his first race with an impressive time and a positive attitude.  In a short 5 weeks, Leonard has already logged over 50 miles and maintains 100% attendance, making him a reliable presence at our 5:30 runs.

The entire St. John’s Team is looking forward to witnessing what Leonard will accomplish next!

Non-Res Member of the Month: Alison Reis

Alison is a long time Saint John’s BoMF volunteer and just completed a six-month term as The Organizer on the core team. In addition to attending nearly every morning run, weekend race, and Saint John’s social outing, Alison offered her leadership skills to track resident attendance and progress towards incentives/financial aid. Alison has been one of the most positive,energetic, and consistent Saint John’s volunteers.

The Saint John’s family is privileged to have Alison as a member.

Team Ridge has had an amazing July, despite the record high temperatures!

Several res- and non-res members participated in this year’s BoMF 20in24 event.  Team Leader Amina and res member Randolph had the pleasure of meeting and running with Today Show anchor Natalie Morales on her bronze relay team.  Randolph and Amina had a great time representing Team Ridge in this event!  Jerome also competed on a bronze relay team later in the day, and ran an impressive time, considering how hot it was.  Congrats to Randolph and Jerome!

Another Ridge non-res member really made Team Ridge proud by competing as a Lone Ranger at 20in24.  He ran an impressive 9 laps of the Kelly Drive loop… that’s 75.6 miles!!! Congratulations Chris!

Some other non-res members competed in various events throughout the day.  Kate T. competed as part of a silver relay team, and Amina, Shannon, and Liz S. raced in the midnight madness loop.  Awesome job everyone, and thanks to everyone who came out to volunteer at the water station!  Your efforts were greatly appreciated.

Team Ridge took a break from running in the heat to cool off, by heading to the beach for a day.  The gang headed to Island Beach State Park on July 9th, and had a fantastic time swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach.

Members of the month:

Res- Kevin M.

Kevin is new to Team Ridge, but despite his short time with us, so far he has made a big impact.  Kevin has improved so much over the past couple of weeks, and he continues to push himself every week.  He always has a big smile on his face, and is such a great source of inspiration for the whole team.

Non-res-  Liz Schnitz

Liz is a great presence on Team Ridge, and is always the first to volunteer for events.  She is an amazing runner, and pushes the team during morning runs.  Liz is always bright, chipper and ready to run even on the hottest early mornings!  Thanks for everything you do, Liz!

July has been quite a month for team Ready, Willing, and Able! We started off the month celebrating Back on My Feet’s Fourth Birthday with all the teams and staff at City Hall. Thanks to some awesome teamwork, both RWA and New Jerusalem Now scored the win for the scavenger hunt around center city. We pieced together the clues and performed our cheer with some sweet posters in hand. Thanks to Kristel for making them!

The biggest race of the year for Back on My Feet, the 4th Annual Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20 in 24, happened this month! It was a lot of fun over at Lloyd Hall! Thank you to Krista, Bess, and Jess for being Quality Volunteers! Thanks to Michelle, Mark, Kenny, Liz, Greg, Warren, Maurice and James for volunteering over the weekend as well!

Maurice ran for Team Natalie Morales and closed in as the last leg of their Bronze Relay team. He did awesome!

Caitlin ran in the Midnight Madness run with her glow in the dark t-shirt! Jess, Wardell, Bess, and Therion ran early on Sunday morning in the Pajama Loop and ran a solid race!

A HUGE Congratulations to Kai’s Team for winning the Platinum Relay! The top two teams were head to head the entire race and it all came down to the last runner pulling ahead. Gotta love those kind of wins.

Great job to everyone who came out and ran/volunteered!

Members of the Month for July

Non-Res Member: Liz is our non-res member of the month for July! She has been incredibly dedicated since she first started in May. Liz will run or walk any distance with a res member and is always supportive of our team members. For 20in24, Liz came out and volunteered at a refreshment stand for 4 straight hours. Thank you for all of your enthusiasm and support, Liz!

Res-Member: Therion! He has been a member of BoMF’s RWA team since March, but this past month, Therion did something very special. Therion trained for weeks and ran the 8.4 mile loop for 20in24! He has been a positive member of the team since he started and is always willing to help out his teammates by suggesting stretches to solve running ailments. Keep up the great work, Therion!

Team OBP endured the summer heat in Philadelphia this month. Pete D., Dave F, and Christine even got a few extra miles at the Thursday night runs. We had a very strong showing at the 4th Annual Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24 event. We were proudly represented by Rebecca, Pete D, Pete S, Marisa, and Olani. Our members LeMar and Dave F. as well as our former team leader Laura volunteered supporting the runners and the race. Also, Christine – our member for the month of July – stopped by with Peppers to cheers us all on. What great teammates – thank you!

We also had a great time celebrating BoMF at the birthday run earlier this month. Who doesn’t love Krispy Kreme doughnuts slathered in frosting? For some summer fun, our non-res members gathered in Northern Liberties at PYT where we enjoyed amazing burgers and a round of Quizzo. Our competitive spirit took over, or rather Rebecca’s knowledge of pop star mug shots took over, and we found a way to crush the competition and win; We’re smart! We’re looking forward to next month’s track meet and are planning a hike as our August social event.

Non-Res Member of the Month

Our July non-res member of the month is Christine. She’s a regular fixture in the mornings even as she studies her glutes off at Drexel. She also is in possession of the current OBP mascot, Peppers. Christine is a valuable member of team OBP, and we will miss her terribly when her studies take her away from us in September. But, at least she leaves us with these words:

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be. ”

~George Sheehan

Thanks for all that you do Christine!

July was hot, hot, hot in Philly but at Sheila Dennis we didn’t let that slow us down! We started out the month with a birthday fun run at City Hall where we ran around the Convention Center searching for clues and enjoyed some doughnut birthday cake.  We performed our cheer again for the other teams.  Wilma, Dawn, and Lisa also all had birthdays this month- happy birthday ladies!  We also welcomed new non-resident member Eileen to our circle this month.  Eileen joins us on sleepy Monday mornings and she is already having fun getting to know the team.

The team came out in full force to operate a water stop at the 4th Annual Stroehmann Back on My Feet 20in24.  Esterlina dressed as a life-sized foot and entertained the thirsty runners that passed through our stop.  We cheered on each and every runner, including some familiar Back on My Feet faces.  We worked together to make sure our stop ran smoothly, and had a ball doing it.  Congrats to all of the 20in24 runners.  Next year some of our non-resident members may join you! We can do it!

Resident of the month: Wilma

Wilma has maintained 100% attendance since joining the team in April.  Wilma is a great example for her teammates.  She manages a busy schedule of working in maintenance and as a peer counselor at Sheila Dennis.   She always has a coy smile on her face as she makes jokes in the morning circle.  She recently earned her 30 mile shirt and determined to earn many more.

Non-Resident of the month: Megan

Even though Megan already got a non-resident nod this year, she deserves another one for being a Quality Volunteer overnight AND helping out at the team water stop at 20in24!  Megan is committed to do everything she can to help the team.  She inspires the ladies every week with her determination and cheerful attitude.  Thanks for staying up with us, Megan!