Wallace State OTA program hosting virtual 5K in support of community partners

HANCEVILLE, Ala. — The Wallace State Community College Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program’s Student Occupational Therapy Association is hosting a virtual 5K to support its program and its community partners — The Link of Cullman County, Hope Horses, Inc., and Flourish of Cullman, Inc.

The Running to Resolutions Virtual 5K will be held Jan. 9-16, with runners choosing when and where they will run or walk.

“The run is free, but we are accepting donations from runners and those who want to support the program from their couch,” said Laura Smith, director of the Wallace State OTA program. “This run is on the honor system, so they run – or don’t — and then upload pictures and their times to the event website.”

Funds will be donated to the community partners that the OTA program works with to provide clinical experience to their students.

The Link’s mission is to help people grow out of poverty through encouragement, education and employability training.

Hope Horses’ mission is to provide therapeutic horsemanship programs to individuals with special physical, social, cognitive and emotional needs.

Flourish of Cullman provides community-based support to individuals with developmental disabilities who would like to live as independently as possible.

“We really wanted to find a way to support the programs that have supported us,” Smith said. “When the pandemic hit, traditional fieldwork sites closed down or did not allow outside personnel in, and many of our students did not have a place to go and get workforce experience. Each of these three community programs opened their doors and took our students for eight weeks; they took multiple students and multiple sessions of eight weeks. These additional sites helped fill the gap and allowed our class of 2020 to complete their fieldwork class and graduate the program.  We are forever grateful to them and hope that raising some money for them will express our gratitude.”

Go to https://runsignup.com/Race/AL/Virtual/mOTivAtedWSCCVirtual5K to register or make a donation. Registration continues until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 8.

The Wallace State Occupational Therapy Assistant program is five-semester associate degree program, with two semesters of prerequisite courses to be completed before applying to the program to take three semesters of program-specific courses. Applications are accepted each year from March 1 to June 1 for fall entry. For more information, visit www.wallacestate.edu or contact Smith at 256.352.8333 or laura.smith@wallacestate.edu.

For information about the community partners visit: The Link: https://www.linkingcullman.org/;  Hope Horses https://www.hopehorsesinc.com/; Flourish of Cullman: http://www.flourishofcullman.com.