Students come together at last year's Be Great Today 5k Race.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BE GREAT TODAY 5K

Lace up your running shoes, Tigers. On Sept. 27, the Be Great Today 5K will wind its way through DePauw’s Nature Park.

Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Stephanie Sharlow (DePauw graduates of 2013 and 2014, respectively) created the Be Great Today 5k in September 2011 in memory of their friend and former DePauw student Marshall Mathew, who took his own life in May 2011 at the end of his freshman year. The name of the event derives from a favorite saying of Marshall Mathew’s. He was known to greet friends and strangers alike with the positive message, “Be great today.” 

Though they are no longer DePauw students, Sharlow and Kirkpatrick are still active members in the organization of this event. Sharlow has shared her resources from past years with those in charge of this year’s race and has been spreading word of the event through social media. Kirkpatrick has been assisting the planners with the endowment associated with Be Great Today. As he told The DePauw in a 2013 interview, Kirkpatrick wanted to bring to light the issue of suicide prevention and decrease the shame associated with it.

Though medals will be given to the top three male and female finishers, walking the course is perfectly fine. Co-coordinators and DePauw seniors Patrick Ozog and Phoebe Erickson consider the race route fairly easy. Those who want to attend but not participate in the 5k can cheer on the sidelines. 

WGRE will set up a tent and play music. Ozog encourages people to bring their dogs. Immediately following the race, there will be a raffle featuring prizes donated by places such as Almost Home, Chief’s, Starbucks, and Eli’s Books. The race comes with volunteer opportunities.

Funds raised by the Be Great Today 5K go into an endowment through the Putnam County Community Foundation that helps create suicide awareness and prevention programs in Putnam County. The first race raised about $20,000, and a total of approximately $48,000 has been raised in the past three years. Ozog and Erickson are less concerned with the money, however, and more concerned with the message behind the event. Their goal is to raise awareness of suicide and of the steps that can be taken to prevent it.

The last class of DePauw students that was on campus at the same time as Mathew graduated this past May. For the organizers, this marks a shift towards focusing the event more on the message of awareness and prevention. While those who knew Mathew have left campus, the desire to prevent such a tragedy from striking this community again remains.

“With a community as close-knit as DePauw, the campus becomes like a family,” Ozog said. “When we lose a member of that family, it really affects everyone.”

Marshall’s mother Susan Mathew is very appreciative of the community's efforts to honor the memory of her son, she told The DePauw in 2013. This will be the first year that she will not attend the Be Great Today 5K. Instead, she will mark the event in her own way. As runners take to the course at the DePauw Nature Park, Susan Mathew will run the same distance in her home community in Arizona.

As of midday Tuesday, 120 people had signed up to take part in the race. Though online registration has closed, those who want to participate can still sign up on the day of the event. Check-in and registration begin at 7 a.m. at the DePauw Welcome Center in the Nature Park, and the race begins at 8 a.m. For day-of registration, cash payment is preferable.