Diverse Running Club Includes Whites From Variety of Backgrounds
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A local running club that prides itself on diversity and inclusion counts “all sorts of white people” among its members, the club’s president said—and it’s always looking for more to join.
“Especially today, when we all seem to live in our own little bubbles, engaging with a variety of people is so important,” said Richard Hellmann, 54, president of The West Side Striders. “So we’ve really made an effort to recruit runners of both genders and from a wide range of backgrounds, from middle class to upper-middle class.”
The club has 67 active members, Hellmann said, and hosts twice-weekly group runs as well as races and other seasonal events. Though it was founded in 2009, he added, the group has made diversity a focus only in recent years.
“We began very informally, as a casual group of friends who would meet once or twice a week for runs,” said Hellmann, a founding member. “After a certain point, I looked around and said, Hey, we’re all white, thirty-something lawyers. Maybe the club should broaden its horizons.”
That realization led Hellmann and his friends to seek out runners from other backgrounds, including white bankers, white architects, and even, eventually, a white stay-at-home mom. (“Back then,” Hellmann said, “we called them ‘homemakers.’”)
Before they knew it, The West Side Striders had expanded from a handful of virtually interchangeable white members to dozens of white runners representing as many as seven white-collar occupations with degrees from several different private colleges and universities.
The change has made the club stronger, Hellman said, and he looks forward to making its membership even more diverse.
“Whether you’re a young white woman just out of college or a senior white man who teaches in a college, a white CPA or a white barista, a white single person or a white married person—heck, even a white divorced or separated person—you are welcome in the Striders,” Hellmann said.
“Diversity is a strength.”
