John W. Brick 5K & Fam­ily Fun Run Re­turns

John W. Brick 5K & Fam­ily Fun Run Re­turns to Tow­son Univer­sity

The Avenue News - - FRONT PAGE - By Lisa Har­low

N ot only is ex­er­cise im­por­tant for your phys­i­cal health, but ex­perts say it is es­sen­tial for your men­tal health as well! That’s why the John W. Brick Foun­da­tion is host­ing its 2nd Annual 5K Run/ Walk and Fam­ily Fun Run on Sun­day, September 10 at Tow­son Univer­sity.

All pro­ceeds from the event will sup­port the John W. Brick Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion, a 501(c)3 non­profit or­ga­ni­za­tion es­tab­lished by Vic­tor, Lynne and Vicki Brick in 2015 to ad­vance learn­ing on how ex­er­cise ben­e­fits men­tal health.

More than 1,200 peo­ple of all ages and fit­ness lev­els are ex­pected to par­tic­i­pate in the race, which starts and ends at Johnny Uni­tas Sta­dium. Reg­is­tra­tion be­gins on-site at 7 a.m., fol­lowed by warm-up ex­er­cises led by The Ori­ole Bird and Lynne Brick, co-founder and owner of Brick Bod­ies Fit­ness Ser­vices, Inc. and Planet Fit­ness fran­chises, in­clud­ing one in Perry Hall. The event’s em­cee is Denise Koch from WJZTV Eye­wit­ness News.

The 5K starts at 8:30 a.m. and winds through Tow­son neigh­bor­hoods be­fore fin­ish­ing at the sta­dium’s 50-yard line. The Fam­ily Fun one-mile walk be­gins at 9 a.m. and goes through­out Tow­son Univer­sity’s campus. After the race, all walk­ers and run­ners can cel­e­brate their victory at the post-race fes­ti­val, which will fea­ture food, drinks, mu­sic, a Kids’ Fun Zone, ven­dors and ex­hibits.

The John W. Brick Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion is named after Vic­tor Brick’s old­est brother who

suf­fered from schizophre­nia and died pre­ma­turely of com­pli­ca­tions from the dis­ease. As phys­i­cal health en­thu­si­asts, the Bricks firmly be­lieve that changes to John’s phys­i­cal health could have greatly im­proved his men­tal health.

The mis­sion of the foun­da­tion is to ad­vance learn­ing on how ex­er­cise ben­e­fits men­tal health. While it is as­sumed that ex­er­cise can im­prove men­tal health, very lit­tle re­search has ac­tu­ally been done in this area, and there is even less con­clu­sive ev­i­dence re­gard- ing the best type of ex­er­cise to do for a spe­cific men­tal health con­di­tion, in­clud­ing how of­ten and how much.

Led by Dr. Allen Tien, Chief Sci­ence Of­fi­cer, the foun­da­tion is work­ing with other men­tal health care in­sti­tu­tions, or­ga­ni­za­tions and in­di­vid­u­als in con­duct­ing stud­ies, pro­mot­ing re­search, cre­at­ing aware­ness and im­prov­ing un­der­stand­ing as to how ex­er­cise ben­e­fits men­tal health.

The or­ga­ni­za­tion states that at some point in our lives, most all of us will suf­fer from some form of men­tal ill­ness from mild anx­i­ety or de­pres­sion to schizophre­nia. It is es­ti­mated that each year, 27% of the Amer­i­can pop­u­la­tion could be clin­i­cally di­ag­nosed with men­tal ill­ness.

Ac­cord­ing to the Bricks, John Brick re­ceived treat­ment from some of the best in­sti­tu­tions in the na­tion but never once was diet, ex­er­cise, and a healthy life­style in­cluded in his treat­ment. The foun­da­tion be­lieves that these things would not re­place drug ther­apy, but rather en­hance and help men­tal health and hy­giene. The foun­da­tion wants to use the idea of diet, ex­er­cise, and a healthy life­style to help oth­ers that suf­fer from all forms of men­tal ill­ness. For more in­for­ma­tion about the John W. Brick Men­tal Health Foun­da­tion, visit https:// www.ex­er­cisey­our­men­tal­health.org.

John W. Brick Foun­da­tion 5K Run/Walk and Fam­ily Fun Run

Sun­day, September 10 at 8:30 a.m. Tow­son Univer­sity 8000 York Rd, Tow­son, MD 21252

Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three male and fe­male over­all fin­ish­ers ($200/$100/$50), as well as male and fe­male Mas­ters ($75) and Grand­mas­ters ($75). Age group awards will go to the top three male and fe­male fin­ish­ers in each age groups. Ad­di­tion­ally, the largest team will re­ceive an award.

Reg­is­tra­tion fees are $25 for the Fam­ily Fun One Mile Walk and $40 for the 5K on Race Day. These fees cover on-course wa­ter, post-race re­fresh­ments and ac­tiv­i­ties for all, plus tech shirts, medals and goody bags for the first 1,200 regis­trants. For more in­for­ma­tion, visit www .j wb 5 k.com.

PHOTO BY JACK MCCOY

Mem­bers of the Brick fam­ily pos­ing after the race.

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