Josh Baron organizes the Run for Sobriety with his fiancé Natalie Varga, which raises money for the Canadian Mental Health Association. The event includes a five-kilometre and 10-kilometre run, and it has grown from 20 participants to more than 200.Supplied
The organizer: Josh Baron
The pitch: Launching the Run for Sobriety
The cause: The Canadian Mental Health Association
Josh Baron spent years addicted to drugs and alcohol, until a suggestion from his mother put him on a path to sobriety.
Mr. Baron hit rock bottom during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was drinking every day. I was using drugs every single day,” he recalled from his home in Langley, B.C. It was a phone a call with his mother, Tracy, that finally brought him some answers.
“I just had broken up with my girlfriend and I called my mom. She said, ‘You used to love running and that was always something that you enjoyed when you were a kid. Why don’t you just try, try going for a run and seeing how you feel?’ ” he said.
With little to lose, Mr. Baron took up the idea and started running. “The more I ran, and the more I dedicated my time to focusing on healthy alternatives, the better it got,” he said.
After a year of sobriety, he organized a run in 2021 with some friends to raise money for the Canadian Mental Health Association. He called it the Run for Sobriety and he’s been holding it every fall ever since. The event includes a five-kilometre and 10-kilometre run, and it has grown from 20 participants to more than 200. So far it has raised more than $17,000 for mental-health services.
Mr. Baron, 28, is especially proud that among the participants each year are several people from a local addiction treatment centre. “For them it’s the most amazing accomplishment, running 5K without stopping or 10K, or just being around people and a community,” he said. “I think the biggest thing for people who are trying to get sober is finding things to replace the substances, so community connection and all those things. That’s why we keep doing it.”
Mr. Baron still attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but his life has turned around. He has a career as a mortgage broker and a fiancé, Natalie Varga, who helps organize the run.
“When I first got sober, those first three months were so hard and that person could have never imagined what it’s turned into now and the impact we’re making,” he said. “I hope to inspire others who are going through what I went through, to really see what’s possible if you just make these changes.”