5K fundraiser will support student-doctors and their families who are facing medical challenges

Since Liberty University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) welcomed its first class of student-doctors to Liberty Mountain in 2014, its campus chapter of the Student Advocates Association (SAA) has found big and small ways to help students and their loved ones through the arduous years and challenges of life in medical school.

LUCOM-SAA, in partnership with Riverside Runners, will be hosting a Medical Mountains 5K Run/Walk on April 17 to establish the Medical Hardship Grant, a fund designed to support current LUCOM student-doctors whose families are facing a medical challenge. Participants can register to run or walk on Lynchburg’s Blackwater Creek Trailhead or run virtually at home or any location using the RaceJoy app.

With some current members of the LUCOM community dealing with personal issues that range from loss of a spouse to a child with leukemia, SAA member Rachel Strausbaugh said the group is looking forward to creating this financial resource to aid families.

“We wanted something inclusive, and this 5K is something that families can do,” Strausbaugh said. “The LUCOM community, LUCOM-SAA specifically, gives of itself to help parents, families, and spouses, and we wanted to get everyone involved and the whole community behind them. The fact that these stories hit so close to home with us is why we chose to try to get it to go to these families specifically.”

The chapter applied to its governing body, the Advocates of the American Osteopathic Association, for a grant that would cover the costs of the 5K to start the fund.

LUCOM-SAA has more than 40 members, including LUCOM students, spouses, faculty, and administrative staff. Throughout the year, the organization provides post-exam snacks monthly, offers opportunities for LUCOM families to participate in local events, and gives families the chance to show their support for the students through different recognition events.

“One of our biggest events is the Welcome Back Picnic, when new students and their families can meet the other (medical) students before Day 1 of classes,” Strausbaugh said. “It establishes that connection between everybody. A lot of us, we’re moving here on a whim with our spouses, so it’s just trying to make our own community and trying to make that transition a little easier for everybody.”

In addition to supporting the students and their families, LUCOM-SAA also helps to spread awareness of the practice of osteopathic medicine. LUCOM offers a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree, which has the same unlimited practice rights as the more commonly known MD degree, but places a more prominent emphasis on a holistic, preventative health, patient-centered approach. When the medical school began, it was only the second such school in the state and the 30th in the country.

“A lot of people don’t understand or don’t know what the osteopathic profession does, so that’s a major focus of not only our chapter but the national board as well,” LUCOM-SAA President Aimee Thompson said.

“Watching SAA grow every year is amazing. The SAA leadership year-after-year passes the torch to the next group, and their activities and their support for Liberty’s osteopathic medical students gets more and more involved, ,” said LUCOM Director of Marketing, PR, and Web-Operations Chris Breedlove. “You can feel a sense of appreciation from the student-doctors for all that SAA does. They’re very involved and you couldn’t ask for a better SAA group.

Online registration for the Medical Mountains 5K walk/run is currently open. There is no on-site, race-day registration.