Outdoor community events and races are off to a running start this spring, beginning with the Avicenna 5K on Saturday.

Hosted by the Avicenna Health Center and the University’s Avicenna RSO, the Avicenna 5K will take place at 10 a.m, on Saturday at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana near the Carle Foundation Hospital.

The clinic, located at 502 S. 2nd St., is a fairly new nonprofit health center that provides medical treatment to the uninsured and underinsured citizens of Champaign County.

Started in the spring 2009 by a board of physicians, the clinic has grown over the past four years. A team of interdisciplinary doctors, nurses and nutritionists along with other professionals from the community provide their services and run the clinic.

Avicenna greatly values branching out and getting involved with the community. Its volunteers went on to create an Avicenna RSO in order to get students more involved with the health center.

The Avicenna 5K is a new event the clinic and registered student organization are hoping to make an annual affair to help raise money and awareness for the center and to also bring the community together.

“We have three goals with our 5K,” said Lisa Shkoda, head of the Avicenna 5K management committee. “The first is to bring the community together and create awareness, … the second is to raise support for Avicenna and provide Avicenna with more resources to serve more patients in need and the last goal, and most important, is to promote an active life style and healthy nutrition.”

Shkoda said the 5K will have on-site nutrition counseling from a nutritionist as part of its advocation of promoting health awareness through a healthy lifestyle.

“Avicenna’s mission is to provide health care for the uninsured and under-insured, to engage a community in preventative health and promote health awareness through education and action,” Shkoda said.

According to Shkoda, the Avicenna RSO at the University and its members played a huge role in putting together the event.

“We booked the location, spread the word, found sponsors and really worked hard to help make this happen,” said Lina Al-Chaar, sophomore in LAS. On top of being an executive board member of the RSO, Al-Chaar has been a volunteer with Avicenna for over a year and is the assistant organization manager with the clinic.

According to Javi Lopez, president of the Avicenna RSO, this is the second year the RSO has been active. Their is to get the name of the clinic out and raise money for the patients, Al-Chaar and Lopez said.

“We try to spread awareness of the clinic and try to get more volunteers to come in every semester,” Lopez said. “Last year we had a fundraising dinner and were able to raise money and do a lot for the clinic and this year we have put together what hopefully will be a successful 5K to help raise money for the patients.”

Shkoda, Al-Chaar and Lopez all want to make the Avicenna 5K an annual event and think it is very possible because of the good turn out thus far.

“The community has been great with their support, we currently have 170 people registered with more registering every day and more than eight sponsors for the event,” Shkoda said.

According to Shkoda, if people are looking to participate, there is online registrations on the Avicenna website registration will be available till the end of Friday and the registration fee is $15. If people miss the online registration time, there will be in-person on-location registration on the day of the 5K from 8 to 9 a.m.

Shkoda and Al-Chaar, when describing the organization of the 5K, said that there will be two lanes, one for participants who will be walking and the other for runners. There will also be raffles, giveaways, food, t-shirts and participation prizes.

“All of our supplies and everything we do is for the patients and you need money to run a clinic,” Al-Chaar said. “Since everyone is already volunteering the time, we just need donations to actually pay for the patients, so that’s what the proceeds of the 5K will be going towards.”

Shkoda said Avicenna plays an important role in the community, and the 5K is a great way to get people to learn about it and volunteer.

“At the end of the day, it is a good cause that helps those in need receive free health care,” she said.

Saher can be reached at [email protected].