WHAT: Sweat2Support virtual run to aid coronavirus relief and response efforts.
WHEN: Sunday, noon.
WHERE: Anywhere and everywhere.
WHAT IT COSTS: $10 per runner.
MORE INFO: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/sweat2support-walk-and-run-crushcovid1; https://disasterphilanthropy.org/cdp-fund/cdp-covid-19-response-fund.
HANOVER — Only one thing seems to divide sisters Sophia, Georgia and Amelia Lubrano these days: Sophia is a Bowdoin College graduate while the others have connections to NESCAC rival Colby College.
“And they never let me forget it, ever,” Sophia cracked this week.
On most everything else, they’re a team. Between that and an apparently sharp grasp of social media, the Lubranos are trying to help during the coronavirus pandemic.
Assisted by Hanover-based nonprofit Positive Tracks, the trio will host a virtual road race on Sunday. The sisters have drawn interest from around the country for their Sweat2Support event, the proceeds of which will go to the D.C.-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy and its COVID-19 Response Fund.
All three Lubranos played soccer and lacrosse at Hanover High, and all three played one sport, or both, in college. With all of the networks formed from those experiences, it’s no wonder that an idea spawned barely three weeks ago has already gone beyond its initial $10,000 fundraising goal and is chasing a new $13,000 target.
“In all of our free time at home, we wanted to figure out a way to give back and do something positive, because it’s a relative luxury to be healthy and safe at home,” Sophia Lubrano said. “We organized a virtual run where you can run any length you want — 5K, 10K, a half marathon or beyond — and instead of gathering on race day, we’ll run at the same time and share it on social media to bring people together and create a community.”
Georgia (Hanover 2013, Colby 2017) and Sophia (Hanover 2015, Bowdoin 2019) both have jobs in the Boston area, but have been working at their family’s Hanover home since Massachusetts instituted remote work policies. Amelia, a 2017 Hanover grad, has been home doing her Colby studies after seeing her junior season with the Mules’ women’s lacrosse team canceled by the pandemic.
Positive Tracks became a natural starting point given the sisters’ mother is good friends with the nonprofit’s founder, Nini Meyer. The Lubranos launched their gofundme.com appeal on March 26, and it grew immediately.
“Coaching these three young women was a privilege,” Positive Tracks program director Liz Gray said. “They are, all three, really strong leaders. We were so excited to give them the mechanism to show this leadership and to really bring it out to the forefront.”
Sophia Lubrano credits the athletic communities to which she and her sisters belong as being important to the event’s quick dissemination. Colby’s athletic department quickly connected to the sisters’ Twitter appeal of late Match, and the connections built from the Lubranos’ past and present athletic endeavors have only multiplied through social media contacts.
“We’ve been lucky,” Sophia said. “There a huge ton of community at Bowdoin and Colby. We reached out to our prior teammates and our athletic departments on social media, and they were all willing to spread the word. We’ve heard from people all across the country that we’ve never seen. It’s all word of mouth.
“Social media is king,” she added. “It can get a message across to so many people in a short period of time, if you frame it right.”
The Lubranos plan to do their running on Hanover’s River Road on Sunday. Amelia will be going 10 kilometers, while her older sisters both have half marathons planned.
“It was really just all of us being at home, having a lot of time on our hands and thinking about all those people in dire circumstances,” Sophia said. “It kind of stemmed out of that. We wanted to do something, but we weren’t sure how to.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.