This weekend the Kinesiology Club will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday by hosting the 5K Turkey Run in an effort to promote healthy living within the community.

However, this year the Kinesiology Club decided to make the Turkey Run a little different and more unique than it had been in previous years.

Unlike other running events, this year’s Turkey Run gives participating runners the chance to reduce their overall finishing time by donating canned foods.

“Our race is a 5K with a twist,” president of the Kinesiology Club Grant Garza said. “Each canned food will be worth six seconds. This means 10 cans will take a full minute off your total time.”

Each runner that donates canned foods will have their time re-calculated based on the number of cans they brought. This will allow runners a better chance of placing in the top 10.

The idea of using canned food donations as a way to improve a runner’s time is an effort to increase the number of donations.­ All canned foods collected from the Turkey Run will be donated to the Poverello House.

Garza says the Kinesiology Club’s goal is to have as many canned foods as possible to give to the Poverello House.

“These items will go toward local community residents who need some assistance,” kinesiology professor Dr. David A. Kinnunen said. “The donations are what count in an event like this.”

Along with making donations to the Poverello House, the Turkey Run will give the top-10 finishers with the shortest time a free turkey for Thanksgiving.

“It’s all about turkeys,” Garza said. “Our race is so close to the national turkey holiday we wanted to save people a trip to the grocery store by making a trip to Woodard Park for a run.”

In the past years the Kinesiology Club held the Turkey Run on Thanksgiving day. However, many people found it problematic because it did not give the winners enough time to prepare their turkey for the holiday.

This year the Turkey Run will take place the week before Thanksgiving to ensure that all winners know ahead of time that they do not need to purchase one, Garza said.

The Turkey Run will take place on Sunday, November 20 at 7 a.m. at Woodward Park. The race will start and finish at the Mountain View Picnic Area inside the park.­ The event will provide food, beverages, raffles and live music throughout the run.

Kinesiology Club Secretary Yanira Barrera is anticipating 50 participants for this year’s Turkey Run and hopes the turnout exceeds her expectations.

Barrera and other club members have posted fliers across campus and local department stores to promote the Turkey Run to not only Fresno State students, but the community as well.

In addition, club members conducted several classroom presentations to hand out informational material regarding the event.

Barrera would like to emphasize the importance of the Turkey Run; not only as a way to donate during the Thanksgiving holiday, but as an event that strives to promote an active lifestyle.

“This event is extremely important for the Kinesiology Club, as well as the community in general,” Barrera said. “As a club we strive to promote physical activity and if we host a 5K run people will be able to share that experience with us as well as become more familiar with our club and our purpose to Fresno State.”