On a sweatshirt-worthy Wednesday morning, the current clients of The Bridge Behavioral Health Center congregated outside the addiction treatment facility at 721 K St. Beneath jeans and track pants, many of the 13 wore gleaming sets of running shoes. Out on the Bridge’s deck, they were introduced to the woman who’d donated them.
“It looks like some people need some shoes,†said Ann Ringlein of the Lincoln Running Company.
“There’s a couple of new guys,†said Valerie Douglas, a recovery advocate with the Bridge.
“Yeah that’s awesome,†Ringlein said. “So if you give me a list, and sizes, and if they don’t fit or they’re not comfortable, let me know. We can do this, OK? We want you moving. And it takes shoes. Your feet have to feel good for you guys to get out here and do this. This is hard enough, just getting out and running and getting out and walking.â€
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About three months ago, the Bridge began a partnership with Lincoln’s Feet First program, a project that began in 2016 with a stated goal to “empower participants to accomplish what they thought was not possible both in the area of fitness and other areas of their life.†Specifically, Feet First director Mary Johnson, the learning center supervisor at the F Street Community Center, wanted to provide that empowerment through running.
And to get people running for the first time, they often need shoes. Ringlein, a fellow believer in the power of a good run, offered to donate pairs and pairs of them. Feet First has youth programs at several Lincoln schools and the community center, and The Bridge is the program’s most recent effort to reach adult participants.
Phil Tegler, executive director at The Bridge, said he met with Johnson this summer to discuss the concept. He was convinced to incorporate it at the treatment center not only because there was value in taking up running — walks have long been among the activities that Bridge clients participate in — but also because it rewards responsibility. The new running shoes are kept at The Bridge until clients have participated in a set of runs or walks, which take place three mornings a week. Those who stick with it get to keep their shoes, even after they complete treatment and leave the center.
Darwin Shum earned his. He’d been sober for six months, he said, following his longest stint in treatment. The 57-year-old walked during his last Feet First session at The Bridge before he checked out on Thursday.
“They’re the only ones that are comfortable for me,†Shum said. “I came here with nothing. I was pretty destitute when I came.â€
He leaves with a job that he’d walked 1.5 miles to each day while in treatment, as well as the new shoes that got him there.
“Some people really have to be forced into this, but once you do this, it’s like any habit,†Ringlein told the group before they began 200-meter sprints, jogs or walks through the industrial side of downtown Lincoln. “And you guys hear this, I’m sure — you’ve gotten all kinds of information about habits. Trying to be healthy and getting a better lifestyle, it takes about three weeks to get that set.â€
Shawn Bossom said he slammed five cups of coffee before he stepped outside to run Wednesday. He checked himself into treatment several weeks ago, and said Wednesday morning that he’d been sober 20 days.
“It feels good again,†he said, and paused. “I was drinking a ton.â€
Bossom is the most avid runner in the current group, in part because it was a habit he picked up in his early 20s. Then, he said, he was looking to lose weight. And Bossom, now 37, did. The high school shot putter said he weighed about 265 back then, and got down to 197 at one point.
“Now, trying to maintain and stick with it,†he said. “It’s good stress relief. Clears your mind. Just helps with your mental state.â€
While Douglas provided walkers and joggers with Bronx cheer — she moved to Lincoln from the NYC borough a year ago — Bossom challenged the pace of Feet First coach Cody Hoaglin, who leads the runs at The Bridge.Â
For those who didn’t have years of practice, Tegler posed a hypothetical question to Ringlein.
“I’m running for a while, and I get out of here, and I’m excited about it,†he said. “And then something happens, and I stop. Can I start again?â€
Of course, Ringlein answered, adding that the biggest thing the group has going for it “is you’ve got each other — you’ve got a team.â€
The team was a little bigger than normal on this Wednesday. Because Ringlein was making her first visit to the latest Feet First partnership, Johnson, the program’s creator, juggled her schedule to make it to The Bridge on a morning she normally doesn’t. There, she outfitted five newcomers to The Bridge, and to Feet First, with 10 of the countless sneakers she had in the trunk of her electric car.
“My husband gets annoyed with how many shoes I keep in my car,†she said.
Lori Seibel, CEO of Community Health Endowment, which provides funding to Feet First, was there as well. And there was some media there as well on a rare day where a donor to a nonprofit gets to see the donation in action.
Except it won’t be rare. After the Bridge clients headed inside to get on with their days, Ringlein hopped on her bike to get going on hers. But first, she stopped to ask Johnson and Hoaglin if the runs always started at 8:15 a.m. on Wednesdays. They do.
Good, she told them. She’d be back next Wednesday.