LONOKE — Nancy Hamlin, executive director of the Lonoke Open Arms Shelter, said the Great 5K Pumpkin Run has grown quite a bit in the past few years.
The annual event will take place Saturday at the Lonoke Depot.
“It’s a sanctioned Grand Prix race,” Hamlin said, referring to the Road Runners Club of America. “There are several Grand Prix courses. The runners get points for placing in each race. At the end of the year, [the club selects] winners based on the number of points.
“Every year, it’s grown a little bit more and a little bit more. When we switched to becoming a Grand Prix race course last year, the number of racers increased dramatically. We have a flat course, which will help racers have faster times and make more points.”
A pumpkin patch on the grounds of the depot will be open from 8-11 a.m. The race will start at 8 a.m., with registration opening at 7 a.m. A 1-mile family trot will begin at 9:30 a.m.
For more information about the event, visit great5kpumpkinrun.com.
Shannon Holman of Lonoke helped get the 5K race started nine years ago.
“About 11 or 12 years ago, my family started growing pumpkins as part of our family business,” Holman said. “After talking to our kids about what we could do to give back or do something missional for our community, we wanted to help.
“We’ve got pumpkins, and what can we do with them? We were involved in the Open Arms Shelter. My husband, Merritt, is on the board. We were very involved.”
Holman said she came up with the idea of selling pumpkins to raise money for the shelter.
“We did that for one year, selling pumpkins at the depot,” she said. “We thought it would be fun to get more going. I called a friend (Amy Hill) who was a runner and asked if she would help.”
The Lonoke Open Arms Shelter opened in 1986 to help children who had been abused or neglected in central Arkansas.
However, the Open Arms Shelter is no longer a true shelter.
“The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 was doing away with group homes,” said Hamlin, who became executive director in October 2011. “We had to either change or close down. The option we chose was to become a qualified residential treatment program.”
Hamlin said Open Arms had to become accredited, which it did.
“We had to make some changes in our documentation,” she said. “We had to hire a nurse, but the caliber of children we serve has not changed. They are all still foster children. They’ve all experienced trauma in their lives. We are trying to help them address that trauma so they can move on to becoming independent. We have some children who are adopted. We want them to make the changes they need to make to be successful in life.”
The Great 5K Pumpkin Run is one of two major fundraisers for Open Arms, which is a nonprofit organization.
“One is the 5K Pumpkin Run,” Hamlin said, “and the other is the Child Abuse and Neglect Awareness Banquet in April.”
Hamlin said she is thankful for the support the area gives the Open Arms Shelter.
“As long as I’ve been here, we’ve always had tremendous community support, individually, through the schools, the churches and civic organizations,” she said. “We really appreciate the people of Lonoke. They are so good to our kids.”
Hamlin, 60, who lives in Cabot, is originally from Magnolia. She is a 1977 graduate of Magnolia High School. She and her husband, Richard, have been married 41 years. They have five children and 12 grandchildren.
Hamlin has a teaching degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She taught school at Clarendon, Hazen and Magnet Cove and in Missouri.
She originally went to John Brown University in Siloam Springs to get her master’s degree to become a school counselor. Instead, she earned a master’s degree in marriage and family. She is a licensed professional counselor in Arkansas.
“I used to run school-based mental-health programs,” Hamlin said. “The last program I was with decided to close down due to all the changes coming with insurance and Medicaid. I was looking for something different and heard about this position with Open Arms.”
When she got the position in Lonoke, Hamlin was living in Benton. She moved to Cabot when her husband became pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Cabot.
“I love it and love the kids,” Hamlin said.
She said she was a little nervous about working at Open Arms at first.
“I was a little apprehensive at first because it was out of my wheelhouse,” Hamlin said. “It was something I had never done before. I ran school-based mental-health programs for 10 years. This seemed like a really good opportunity. I interviewed with the board. I felt like they were some fantastic people to get to work with. I met some of the staff. They are people who really care about this, which is what I’ve worked with all my life.
“I thought I would give it a try, and it has turned out to be an awesome experience.”
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.