What to Do With Your Old Race Medals: Donate Them to Sick Kids

Malinda Hill’s race medals for Medals4Mettle.

I don’t know about you, but I have a drawer full of race medals that I haven’t looked at since I got them. They’re fun to grab at the finish line and pose with for a few photos, but after that, what are you really supposed to do with them?

I’d almost forgotten they were there, until I saw a tweet from Philly runner Malinda Hill earlier this week putting out the call to fellow runners in the area who might like to donate their medals to sick kids at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Turns out, Malinda is the newly minted (i.e. she took up the post just this week) Philadelphia chapter coordinator for a nonprofit called Medals4Mettle, which takes old race medals and redistributes them to kids and adults facing chronic and life threatening illness. “The idea is to celebrate their courage for fighting for their lives,” says Hill.

She’d heard about the organization through social media and decided to take the reins here in Philly. So beginning this week, she started collecting medals, first cleaning out her cache of 20—the majority of which, as you can see in the photo on this post, happen to be medals from Disney races, a favorite among recipient kids—then opening the call to everyone else. In just a few days, she’s already up to 60, with more on the way.

If you’re interested in donating yours, note that the organization only accepts medals from marathons, half marathons and triathlons (sorry, no Broad Street medals, please) and 5K medals from other kids. Email Malinda at malinda.hill@medals4mettle.org and she’ll tell you how to get ’em to her.

More info on Medals4Mettle is here.

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