Peabody Resident to Lace Up For College Bound Dorchester

Peabody resident to run in the 2015 Boston Marathon®

Monday, April 20

PEABODY, Mass. – Belinda Chevalier, 45, of Peabody, is one of four individuals selected to run in this year’s Boston Marathon® as part of the College Bound Dorchester team, Dorchester Strong. The team will run 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to the official Copley Square finish to raise more than $35,000 to directly support the 900 students in Dorchester who seek academic, social and emotional assistance from the nonprofit organization.

Based in Bowdoin-Geneva, College Bound Dorchester uses education to end systemic, generational urban poverty. The nonprofit engages those who have failed or dropped out of high school and are not employed, and provides them with the academic, social and emotional support necessary to earn a high school graduation equivalency diploma, matriculate to a community college, and earn a degree.

Just one week prior to applying to join College Bound Dorchester’s Boston Marathon team, Belinda Chevalier, 45, of Peabody, retired an old but faithful pair of running shoes and bought shiny new ones in anticipation of the April event. Having previously run 13.1 miles in a half marathon, her longest distance, she is ready to go the extra miles (13.1 more miles to be exact) to raise money for College Bound Dorchester. An audit manager at Yoshida & Sokolski, P.C., Chevalier has been working with the organization, performing their annual audit for the past six years. Last year, when she learned of the College Bound Dorchester’s Boston Marathon team, she knew she had to start training for the 2015 event. With the help of her co-workers, family, and friends, Chevalier hopes to raise $7,500 for the cause. “I am honored to run for College Bound Dorchester as I believe in this organization and am amazed at the level of dedication of its staff and volunteers,” says Chevalier. “Its mission is important to the Dorchester community and I am proud to be part of the fundraising team to run for the children of Dorchester.”

Since 2012, College Bound Dorchester has enrolled 100 young people into college and 42 percent of those students have graduated with a degree, a rate which is significantly higher than national norms. College Bound Dorchester helps to shift the system toward a college-bound culture in Dorchester. The goal: Dorchester youth graduating from college is the norm, not the exception.

For the past three months, members of the College Bound Dorchester Boston Marathon team have met weekly for training runs on Saturday mornings. Coach Rick Muhr, leader of the Marathon Coalition TEAM, a group of 15 Boston Athletic Association and John Hancock sponsored charities that train together for the Boston Marathon, donates his time to provide College Bound Dorchester runners with training tips, covering topics ranging from proper nutrition, running form, shoe selection and injury prevention. In addition, the nonprofit offers its runners fundraising support.

The 119th Boston Marathon is on Monday, April 20. To sponsor CBD runners, visit https://www.crowdrise.com/2015BostonMarathon and select the College Bound Dorchester team.

ABOUT COLLEGE BOUND DORCHESTER

College Bound Dorchester is a nonprofit organization that is poised to be a national model for using education to end systemic urban poverty. Based in Bowdoin-Geneva, potentially the worst section of Boston in terms of crime and poverty, the organization has roots in the nearly 50-year strong nonprofit, Federated Dorchester. The organization progressed from one that provided social services to children and families in need to one that uses education as the means to transform an impoverished community that thrives economically, socially and physically. CBD empowers those who are least likely to be successful and turns them into positive, rather than negative, influencers in a struggling community. For more information visit collegebounddorchester.org

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