Georgetown Running Club raise $10,000 with memorial 5K walk and run
It was held in memory of former Georgetown student Nina Brekelmans
Last Saturday, March 19, the Georgetown Running Club hosted a 5K run and walk in memory and honor of Nina Brekelmans, a Georgetown student that had received her masters in Arab Studies. Before her studies at Georgetown, she graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Last summer, on June 3, Brekelmans was killed in a house fire near DuPont Circle. Brekelmans was 25 at the time, this month she would have turned 26. Following the incident, Brekelmans’ family filed a $10 million lawsuit due to the circumstances of her death. According to the suit, she was stuck in her room on the third floor of the building, with windows that had been sealed shut.
Through the race, the Georgetown Running Club raised close to $10,000 for an Arab Studies scholarship in her name. 200 participants ran in support of Brekelmans, who had been slated to travel to Jordan on a Fullbright scholarship. There she would have studied female runners in the Middle East.
Coinciding with Saturday’s race was another run in honor of Brekelmans. In Amman, Jordan, a group of girls set off running with Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls.
Mary Grace Pellegrini, a friend from childhood in Louisville helped to organize the race in Washington, DC that took place along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath after commencing at Georgetown University. “Nina was one of the kindest, most genuine people that you’ll ever meet” she told NBC Washington.
Nina’s parents, Gail and Nico Brekelmans, flew in from Shanghai to participate in the memorial 5K as well. “It’s just wonderful everyone is here for Nina,” said Nico Brekelmans, “It’s really helping us.”
Following the race, her parents announced that the scholarship for Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies had been fully funded. Phil Royer, a classmate of Brekelmans’ from Dartmouth, finished the 5K first with a time of 16:56.