Photos by Sierra LaDuke
Phoenix residents gathered at CityScape Monday evening to celebrate a year of free, weekly 5Ks and community interaction through Meet Me Downtown.
Every Monday night for the past year, community members met and walked or ran a fixed route through city parks and past well-known downtown spots. The goals of the event are for Phoenix residents to get active and get to know one another.
Participants checked in at The Corner and shopped at the pop-up farmers market. Everyone was given the opportunity to warm up their legs to the beats dropped by Phoenix DJ Oops.
Attendees played a downtown Phoenix-themed trivia game, among other activities. Meet Me Downtown organizer Jannie Cox explained that the questions were designed to set locals up for success.
“Anyone who misses an answer, shame on them,” Cox said with a laugh. Everyone who completed the trivia game was entered into a raffle for gift certificates to local restaurants.
Several dogs at the event wore the signature colorful “Meet Me Downtown” T-shirts. Those animals were joined by a human disguised as an animal, as the Suns Gorilla posed with attendees in front of Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s photo station.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the title sponsor of the Downtown Phoenix Inc. event. Spokeswoman Jennifer Kaufman said the concept originated in Tucson. The health insurance federation has been a sponsor of the Meet Me Downtown in Tucson for six years.
“We’re really excited to be playing a part in bringing it to Phoenix,” Kaufman said.
According to a statement released by DPI’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications RJ Price, more than 9,000 people participated in the noncompetitive run over the year.
“It is more than we had originally anticipated,” Kaufman said. “When we set goals, we did not think we would get so close to 10,000 in the first year.”
“It just shows that the people here in Phoenix understand and get the program and are just as excited about it as we are,” she said.
Excitement was surely present from start to finish of the birthday celebration. After dispersing from The Corner, runners and walkers passed downtown landmarks such as Heritage and Science Park, the University of Arizona Medical School, and Civic Space Park. The final destination was Margaret T. Hance Park, where the ultimate reward for exercising awaited — a big birthday cake.
Phoenix residents enjoyed their dessert and the music provided by Glendale-based band Rhythm Edition.
Mother and daughter Esther Acero and Tiffany Castillo were two of the three people celebrated for having perfect attendance every Monday this past year. They agreed that they enjoy participating in Meet Me Downtown largely because of the platform it provides for forming new friendships.
Acero said her favorite memories in the past year of Mondays include, “when somebody who’s new and isn’t with someone else comes and walks with us and we get to talking.”
Contact the reporter at Sierra.Laduke@asu.edu.
