Rio Salado College students, faculty, staff, and community members showed up bright and early on April 18 at Kiwanis Park in Tempe for the 8th annual Dash with Rio event. Dash with Rio benefits the Jo C. Bennett Student Assistance Fund, a fund that provides Rio students immediate financial support to overcome hardships that may cause them to drop out of college.
Runners assembled at Kiwanis Park for the start of the run at 7:30 a.m., with Rio multiple options for runners to challenge themselves: a 10K, 5K and 1 mile run.
“Rio Salado College would like to extend our sincere gratitude for the generous support of our 8th annual Dash with Rio event on April 18 at Kiwanis Park in Tempe,” said Rio Salado Senior Development Officer Janine McGhee. “We were proud to welcome over 240 runners and guests, and together, we raised more than $20k in support of the Jo C. Bennett Student Assistance Fund. Thanks to this year’s results, we are able to help students receive critical resources and stay on track toward achieving their educational goals. We are incredibly grateful to all of our runners, donors, sponsors, community partners, volunteers, and vendors who made this event so meaningful. It was inspiring to see our community come together for such an important cause.”
An event as ambitious as Dash with Rio couldn’t be possible without generous support from students, staff, and sponsors and community partners. Rio Salado would like to extend gratitude to Sophia Learning, Cizek Associates, The Lavidge Company, Farmers Insurance, and Notre Dame de Namur University for their sponsorship, and to community partners at Academy Bank Scottsdale, AIR FX LLC, Alloy Personal Training, Brick Road Coffee, City of Tempe, Costco, Dutch Bros, Hello Promo, Main Event, Rio Salado Dental Hygiene Program, Sole Sports, That’s It, Tita’s Tacos, and the University of Maryland Global Campus for their support.
If you weren’t able to make it to the event but would like to make a contribution to the Jo C. Bennett Student Assistance Fund, you can donate via this link.
Article by Austin Brietta