Maine, Oregon, and Maricopa County Win 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge

More than 20 million steps taken!

Congratulations and thanks to all facility staff, young people and friends who participated in PbS’ first-ever 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge. Together we took 20,654,728 steps joining the national Second Chance Month activities and raised $2,987 to support PbS’ scholarship, reentry and employment matching awards – that’s almost six Reentry Awards we can support this fall. The enthusiasm and dedication of the nearly 200 participants from Alaska to Massachusetts, Maine to Alabama – including 101 young people - was inspiring. Together we showed our collective commitment to provide meaningful opportunities for young people who have been incarcerated when they are released.

Congratulations to the winners of the most steps challenge! The team taking the most steps was Long Creek Youth Development Center (LCYDC), the only juvenile facility in Maine operated by the Division of Juvenile Services, Department of Corrections. The LCYDC team came in first place with 6,719,473 steps taken. The Oregon Youth Authority’s Eastern Oregon Youth Correctional Facility (YCF) team came in second place with 5,693,699 steps and Maricopa County Durango Detention Center came in third place with 4,198,865 steps. We would also like to congratulate the two individuals who took the most steps: Riley Morris and Ashlynn Futton, both of whom were from the Eastern Oregon YCF team and each took 558,000 steps.

Congratulations also to the Eastern Oregon YCF team for raising the most money for the awards to help young people be successful when they leave facilities and Randy Rictor, PbS Site Coordinator and much more at YCF, who individually raised the most money.

Some special shout outs!

• To the Kansas Department of Corrections, Juvenile Services for putting together three teams: Two from the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka and one from Johnson County Juvenile Services Center in Olathe,
• To Danielle Radler, Detention Operations Manager at Maricopa County, who engaged 100 young people in the 10K challenge by walking or running as part of their warm up for the daily gym session.

Thank you to the team captains for their leadership and everyone taking steps to raise awareness of the challenges young people who’ve been incarcerated face when they leave and the need for support like the PbS Education and Employment Foundation scholarship, reentry assistance and employment matching awards. This was the very first PbS 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge and we are so proud of and grateful for the participation and from our facilities, agencies, donors and the staff at PbS who joined the teams. Thank you to all for your support.