Miracle Hope 5K Run (Family Fun Run/Walk)

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Rocky Mount Church of God, Rocky Mount VA

Saturday, May 9th, 2026

🎉 Event Overview

This annual event is in memory of Miracle Hope. Miracle was a true warrior! When she was born she was diagnosed with microcephaly cerebral palsy and later in life epilepsy. In her short life she and her family faced many battles. Through it all Miracle showed strength, courage, and love for everyone. She would light up any room she was in and taught many people what true unconditional love is. Miracle went to be with her creator in Heaven in November 2019 and her family and friends fondly remember her wonderful life every day. Miracle's brothers Gabe and Jacob are also able to find some healing in this incredible way to honor her and to give back.

🎂 Celebration of Miracle's Life

This year our event honors her 18th birthday and we are truly excited to celebrate her with our extended family and friends with this event raising money for a wonderful charity, Healing Strides located at 672 Naff Road in Boones Mill, Virginia. Miracle loved riding the horses as part of her therapy and we were so thankful to be connected to them as they were instrumental in Miracle's physical and mental health! We didn’t even know what an amazing connection was being formed long before sweet Miracle was born…

💖 Connection Story

The Story of a Wonderful Connection from Carol Young, CEO, Healing Strides: As my husband and I were building an addition to our home, we hired a contractor, Four Seasons HVAC company to install our heating and air system in our new addition. We were also remodeling the old house so he was putting in two unique systems. Joe Sheets, Miracle's grandfather, was a happy nice gentleman and worked very hard. He always worked alone. One day he showed up to work and seemed to have a different demeanor about himself. He was sad, and quiet, unlike his normal self. I asked him, as we had become friends through the contracting world, so to speak, why he was so sad that day.

Sad news: He replied to me saying that his daughter had just been told their grandchild was going to be born with a lot of medical issues and that was she was probably not going to be able to live very long after birth.
Shared prayer: I asked him if we could pray over the health of this grandchild and he said absolutely and we began to pray that this child would be born and would outlive the medical advice that they were given and that she would be a joy to those around her.
Miracle's journey: Fast forward, Joe finished our job and moved on and I didn’t really see much of him anymore. While I was at work one day this mom, grandmother and child came into our doors at Healing Strides. As they shared this dear child’s story, I began to realize that this was Joe’s granddaughter, Miracle!
Incredible outcome: She was indeed a miracle! I began to cry as I shared I had been praying for this dear one since before she was born. We got her riding with great support from our Volunteers and Miracle was able to learn to have the strength to actually sit up. The smiles she had on the horse were wonderful.

🏆 Awards and Participation

Healing Strides of VA (HSVA) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization established in 1991. They are located on 28 acres with 2 large pastures, 5 paddocks, an enclosed arena, a Mental Health, Learning, and Coaching dedicated building, and a large outdoor arena. Their staff is professionally licensed, certified, or trained for their various expertise to serve our community! HSVA is the only Premier Accredited Center (PAC) with the Professional Association of Therapeutic Riding Int’l (PATH) in the Roanoke Valley. Through your participation and contributions, we will honor Miracle's courageous life and celebrate her 16th birthday. Miracle so enjoyed riding horses at the Healing Strides foundation, there could be no better way to celebrate her life than to acknowledge what was such a wonderful part of her therapy.

📍 Packet Pickup Details

Location 1: Rocky Mount Church of God, 1360 North Main Street Rocky Mount, VA 24151 - Thursday, May 7th, 2026, 5pm to 7pm.
Location 2: Ferguson Fitness, 110 Edinburgh Street Roanoke, VA 24014 - Friday, May 8th, 2026, 11:30am to 6:00pm.
Race-day Pickup: Additional Packet Pickup on Race-day will be available on-site at the Rocky Mount Church of God, Saturday May 9th, 7:15 a.m. until 7:45 a.m.

🏅 Awards for Overall and Age Groups

Awards/Race Age Groups: For our fourth Annual Miracle’s Hope event, based on runner feedback, we will continue having our greatly expanded Awards! The top three M/F runners overall will get a trophy and so will the top M/F Masters (40 and over) and Grand Masters (50 and over) winners. The 2nd place Masters and Grand Masters M/F will also be rewarded with medals. We have also added 16 Age group awards for male and female runners, with medals given to the top 3 in each age group. Age brackets for the race include, for both male and female: 9 and Under, 10-13, 14-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74-, 75-79, 80 & over.

🏃‍♀️ Virtual Participation

Virtual participants may complete their 5k run or walk on their own time and at the location of their choice. All Sponsorships can be made through the "Donations" tab.