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More than 80 people gathered at the Edmonds Center for the Arts Saturday to participate in the third annual Edmonds Move4Mona 5K walk/run, raising money for the Mona Foundation, a global education community.
In addition the 80 Edmonds participants, another 309 people joined in 85 cities across the U.S., and in Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom and South Korea. Of the $40,000 goal set, over $26,000 has been raised and additional funds are expected in the coming weeks.
Coordinator Shiva Riddell of Edmonds held the first Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run in 2020, and said she would like to see the event grow to include many more cities and countries.
“It comes to people being able to help people.” Riddell said. “As we expand our grassroots initiatives to reach the social circles of individuals, more and more people become involved in our community of Edmonds, whether personally showing up or virtually, we know that these actions help villages and marginalized communities that are so desperately in need of hope to be positively transformed.”
Move4Mona was sponsored by the Bellevue-based Mona Foundation, which since 1999 has granted over $17 million to 53 grassroots partners in 23 countries.
Founded by Mahnaz Javid, the Mona Foundation provides four components of success in their programs. Access, scholarships, empowering girls and training teachers. To reach those goals, all donations and registration fees go directly to aid educational programs.
Javid described how the Mona Foundation helped Starfish Business Skill Center in Gambia expand to empower more women to learn skills to help them become successful entrepreneurs.
“The center was started by a divorcee with three daughters who was left with no skills except her sewing,” Javid said. “She worked hard to support her daughters and at present, one is a doctor, one is getting her masters and the other is still in high school.”
In 2018, when the Gambian woman opened the business skill center to aid women who had gone through the same hardships as she had, she started with only one room, one sewing machine and one student.
“We were moved by her story and her business center,” Javid said, “and we decided to support it. I am really thrilled to say that the business skill center now has nine rooms, 95 students, and teaches four different skills — cooking, hotel management, tailoring, and hair styling and make-up.”
The average cost for each student the Mona Foundation supports is $11 per month — that amount will keep 200 students in school for an entire year.
Javid said the Mona Foundation was grateful and thankful to everyone who donated and took part in the Move4Mona 5K Walk/Run.
One of the Edmonds event sponsors was Hunni Water. “I am very happy to support the Mona Foundation in any way that I can to help raise awareness about the good work they are doing all over the world,” said Hunni Water owner Karin Butler.
“I’d really like the community of Edmonds to know that we can make an impact as individuals.” Riddell said, “and help to educate children around the world who otherwise would have no hope. It’s a way of scaling hope.”
Donations can still be made at www.monafoundation.org/move4mona.
Sponsors for the Move4Mona 5K Walk were Aw Pottery, Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Hunni Water, Ombu Salon and Spa and Katherine Vincent Windermere Real Estate.
— Story and photos by Misha Carter
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