{"id":118461,"date":"2026-01-14T23:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/118461\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:31:07","slug":"kiwanis-5k-run-supports-childrens-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/118461\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwanis\u2019 5K run supports children\u2019s education"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fort Myers Metro-McGregor BUG Chase Volunteers- Courtesy Photo\/Fort Myers-Metro Kiwanis Club.<\/p>\n

The Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis will hold the 18th annual BUG Chase 5K run on Jan. 24, 2026, at 3450 Ortiz Avenue in Fort Myers. The race will benefit the Fort Myers-Metro Kiwanis Club\u2019s BUG (Bring Up Grades) program and other local club sponsored youth service projects. Participants can find the link to register online at MetroMcGregorKiwanis.com<\/a> and clicking on fundraisers. Due to the nature of the course, the race is capped at 400 registered runners. Sponsorship opportunities are now available starting at the $100 level.\n<\/p>\n

The course, supervised by Endurance Sports Timing, travels the trails at the nature center and a portion of the asphalt bike path on Ortiz and will be timed with bib tag technology. Packet pick up will take place 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on both Jan. 17 and Jan. 18. Race day packet pick up will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Race day registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and race time is 8:30 a.m.\n<\/p>\n

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Jonathan Iglesias and Jacob Taminosian cross the finish line- Courtesy Photo\/Fort Myers-Metro Kiwanis Club.<\/p>\n

Sponsors of the race include Passarella & Associates, Inc., Physicians\u2019 Primary Care, Weinstein Wilkes Financial Group, The Hartman Family, Burandt, Adamski, Feichthaler & Sanchez, PLLC and Neapolitan Family Magazine.\n<\/p>\n

All proceeds benefit the Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis BUG (Bring Up Grades) program at multiple schools, designed to provide recognition to local elementary students who raise their grades to an acceptable range and maintain or continue to raise them from one grading period to the next, and other local club-sponsored youth service projects.\n<\/p>\n

In addition to the BUG program, the Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis Club also supports the following sponsored leadership programs: Aktion Club at LARC, Circle K International (CKI) at Florida Gulf Coast University, Key Club at FSW Collegiate High, Builders Club at Cypress Lake Middle and K-Kids at Dr. Carrie D. Robinson Littleton Elementary School. The club funded multi-sensory rooms at Tropic Isles Elementary, NFM Academy for the Arts, Heights Elementary, Rayma C. Page Elementary and James Stephens Elementary. The club supplies a world atlas to every fourth or third-grade student at the following schools: Rayma C. Page Elementary, Heights Elementary, Orangewood Elementary, Littleton Elementary and James Stephens Elementary.\n<\/p>\n

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2025 Female Top Finisher Kari Parker- Courtesy Photo\/Fort Myers-Metro Kiwanis Club.<\/p>\n

The Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis club also supports many other organizations, including Pine Manor Improvement Association, March of Dimes, The Salvation Army, Ronald McDonald House, Children\u2019s Network of SWFL, Healthy Start of SWFL, Lighthouse of SWFL, Golisano Children\u2019s Hospital, Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium and more.\n<\/p>\n

For more information regarding the 18th annual Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis BUG Chase or to become a sponsor, visit MetroMcGregorKiwanis.com<\/a> or contact Rachel Toomey at Rachel.Toomey33@gmail.com<\/a>. There is also a Facebook event page to keep updated on the event: www.facebook.com\/events\/1353778272761952<\/a>\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Metro-McGregor BUG Chase Volunteers- Courtesy Photo\/Fort Myers-Metro Kiwanis Club. The Fort Myers Metro-McGregor Kiwanis will hold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-118461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}