R.O.A.M.

R.O.A.M. = Runners On A Mission

This organization was created through the people in my high school one year after I left it, so the beginning of my sophomore year here at OSU. It was created because a levy didn’t pass in my hometown area to let students do extracurricular activities. This organization familiar to me because I ran track and cross country with most of them in high school. Granted some of the students I ran with went to different schools because they wanted to compete in sports and transferred, but some were unfortunate and some wanted to stay because they didn’t want to lose the bond that they had created with the people they ran with over 300 days of the year, the ones that stayed behind created R.O.A.M.

I would say their values are:

Friends
Family
Health (fitness)
Integrity
Positive Change

Here is an article where you can read more about it if you are interested: http://www.milesplit.com/articles/29781. The article also features the R.E.B.E.L.S. because they were in the same school district and were facing the same problems.

ROAM was an organization that had a tremendous amount of heart, because everything was against them, and they still put up a battle, they still managed to compete in meets because the moms of the members helped get the athletes to participate in certain meets as well as purchase jerseys for everyone. They displayed their values to the public because they wouldn’t let a levy hold them back from doing what they love, they were in the news, they were on http://www.baumspage.com/ (a site where peoples times and records were posted for various sports), they were letting everyone know that they wouldn’t give up on their passion to continue running, to better themselves to compete and to win trophies.

Now the school passed the levy, and R.O.A.M. is no longer needed, but they will always have the memory of what they created, and how much they achieved by themselves, when nothing was looking good for them.

On a side note: the guys team won first place at a meet but was unable to collect their trophy or any medal because they were an unofficial team. This did not discourage them, made them sad, but didn't discourage them.