Runners will strip off their clothes again in Charlotte’s South End. Here’s why.
Hundreds of runners will once again shed some of their clothes for the homeless during 5K and 8K races in Charlotte’s South End.
The inaugural Strip it to Give it races and festival drew about 475 runners last year and collected about 1,750 pounds of clothing, race director Katie Gregory told The Charlotte Observer. She said she hopes to double those numbers this time around.
The benefit event, presented by Red Ventures, is scheduled for Jan. 11 at Triple C Brewing Co., 2900 Griffith St.
Stripped-off clothes are washed and dried and distributed to Charlotte’s homeless.
Runners remove one piece of clothing per mile during the races, according to the event’s website on RaceRoster.com.
“’Give Charlotte the shirt off your back’ is our new slogan,’” Gregory said. “We want to encourage and inspire our community to give back.”
The 5K and 8K races will start at 11 a.m. at Triple C, with the event ending by 2:30 p.m. at the brewery. A fun mile run starts at 12:30 p.m.
Proceeds also will benefit Running Works, a Charlotte non-profit that helps the homeless, and Run Your Race Inc., the non-profit created solely to manage finances for the event, Gregory said.
One of the teams that has signed up to run is Knit Together, senior citizens who are knitting all of the items they plan to strip during the 5K, Gregory said.
Gregory, a 31-year-old Charlotte native, came up with the idea for the event. She is an instructional designer at Novant Health who completed the New York City Marathon and the Novant Health Charlotte half-marathon.
Once a week for the past decade, she has joined a formerly homeless man named Arthur to hand out food and clothes to homeless people on Charlotte’s streets, Gregory told the Observer last year.
“Friends and passersby would often ask how they could help,” she said. “Never did they realize that a new pair of socks or a gently used pair of shoes could change the day, and even week, of a person.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 12:30 PM.