Steps Together: A Cornerstone of the Community
One marriage, two kids, and countless races led Courtney and Mike Newman to create Steps Together, a thriving non-profit that benefits local families dealing with medical crises. The pair’s passion for running is what brought them together 15 years ago to begin a lifelong journey of service.
The couple’s background in fundraising dates back to coaching a fundraising marathon team for the cancer support community in Bedminster. The couple trained with runners, encouraged them to fundraise, and traveled with them. They did this for five years, eventually stopping because it was a lot to handle with young children.
Shortly after their second child, Emma, was born, their first child, Jacob, had his first seizure at two years old. Simultaneously, Emma stopped breathing. The two children were in different hospitals and “in an instant, life changed like that,” said Courtney Newman. She said this experience was both financially eye opening for them as well as making them realize how much they appreciated the support of their community.
Six months after her children's health scare, Ian Progin, a fellow HHS alumna of Courtney Newman’s and an HHS guidance counselor and basketball coach, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Courtney Newman said she wasn’t close with Ian and still is not, but they graduated together, and the news hit her hard because she had just gone through her own difficulty.
Courtney and Mike considered running a marathon and raising money like they used to, but instead decided to do something local so Progin’s family could be a part of it. They called the Steeplechase Distance Run, which supports Somerset Medical Center and Steeplechase Cancer Center. She asked to piggyback on their race, and charge anyone who wanted to be on their team $50. Half would go towards the registration fee and half would go to the Progin family. 800 people signed up.
“We took this little town 5k, all showed up in matching shirts, and had this huge message of support and a financial donation, but the emotional aspect was what was important to us,” said Courtney Newman.
Photo Credit: Steps Together
After this, people started to call saying their family members were sick, and asking for help.
Courtney Newman said she wanted to help all these people but knew that she couldn’t do it by herself. Through conversation, her and Mike came up with the idea for Steps Together.
“We really wanted to help where we related. Young families in the prime of their life and then just getting blindsided,” she said.
During Steps Together’s first year, they raised $35,000. The past three years, the organization has cleared $200,000 each year, and the rest is history.
Steps Together has four signature events throughout the year. The largest is the Steeplechase Distance Run, the same race they piggybacked on for Ian Progin years ago. This year’s race is on September 29th and sponsorships for it are going on right now.
They also put on Renaissance Runs the Runway, a fashion show organized by Jen Korab who owns Renaissance Hair Salon and Revival Barber Shop. The third event is a corn hole tournament which is usually held in October at Pheasants Landing.
Renaissance Runs the Runway is one of Steps Together’s main fundraisers.
Photo Credit: Steps Together
The last event is 100 Laps of Healing which is a free event for the whole community. Participants run the HHS track and get sponsorship pledges based on how many laps the community walks. They usually complete somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 laps total.
Various local businesses and organizations host a variety of events throughout the year that benefit Steps Together. Newman said the organization is very Hillsborough centric and gets a lot of support from the community.
“Hillsborough has just really embraced it and they’ve been an awesome community,” she said. “Hillsborough is a big town but it’s a small town. There’s good people here and we can all really make a difference when somebody feels isolated and alone.”
Local businesses, such as Super Sundaes, hold fundraisers to support Steps Together.
Photo Credit: Steps Together
The organization usually helps between 15 and 25 families a year. As of right now, they don’t limit how many families they can help per year and have helped 11 families so far this year. Most of the families have web pages on the Steps Together website.
Unlike many fundraising organizations, Steps Together is not kid specific or cancer specific. They serve a wide variety of circumstances.
“We’re just medical crisis, which is kinda vague, but also allows us to help more,” she said. “The other part is bringing awareness to these things that none of us ever hear about until it’s impacted you.”
Through all the growth Steps Together has experienced, they still value their origins in running. They have a group run that meets every Sunday morning and another group that meets on Thursday nights. Courtney Newman said they always like to bring a fitness aspect into their activities. She said this stems from the runner in her and her husband.
“I think you really get to know people and bond and form friendships,” she said. “The authentic feeling of running and talking and there’s no games. I just love running.”
Steps Together’s mission statement is “Inspiring communities to pay their blessings forward.” This organization has certainly done that, and brought the communities it inspires closer together as a result.
Photo Credit: Steps Together
For more information about Steps Together, visit their website here.