If you come to Seattle’s Seward Park, you’re bound to see dozens of runners.
But two years ago, runner Atlee Treasure saw something that nearly stopped him in his tracks.
“I was out for a run, and I ran by and I said, ‘That’s a large group of Black men’, but I had to finish my route,” Treasure said. “But I thought to myself, ‘Yeah, you should go back.’ For some reason. You should go back and just see what’s going on there.”
So he did turn around. What he found has been improving his life ever since.
“I loved it. I loved it,” says Treasure.
The group was ‘Black Men Run.’ It’s a weekly running group, where – despite the name- the run sometimes takes a backseat.
“It doesn’t matter if you walk, doesn’t matter if you jog, doesn’t matter if you run it’s about coming and joining in being a part of the community,” says Treasure.
That sense of community brought Willis Walker to the group as well. He was one of the first Seattle members.
“When we run, we do three or four miles, but it’s mostly us talking. Listening to music, talking about what concerts we’re going to, silly stuff. It’s whatever guys talk about. It’s fun,” says Walker.