(upbeat music) - What happens when college athletes turn their passion into community impact?

University of Utah track athlete Erin Vringer shares how Run Your City SLC helps children build confidence, teamwork, and resilience.

Welcome, Erin.

- Hi, thank you for having me.

- Thank you for being here.

- It's such a great opportunity for us.

- Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about Run Your City.

What exactly is it for kids?

- Yeah, so it's a nationwide nonprofit organization that is a track program for kids and it's completely free.

We started our chapter in the spring.

And we've continued it.

And have just volunteered and made our thing great.

- [Liz] Wow.

And we can see some of the kids who are participating on the screen.

What kind of reactions do you get from the kids that are a part of this?

- Yeah, it's super awesome.

We have six week programs.

And over the six weeks we see kids start to become friends, start to work together more, and just become more excited about the sport and about movement and joy in the sport.

- There are so many different sports out there, but they can be costly.

How does this differ from those sports and what do you guys do to make sure that every kid can be a part of this?

- Yeah, that's kind of our goal to just break down barriers that kids have in sports.

And it's a completely free program.

And it's open to everyone of all abilities and anywhere in Salt Lake.

So we encourage everyone to sign up and come participate.

And yeah, we just want to mentor young kids in the sport and really be leaders in our community.

- And I bet it means a lot to them that you guys are track stars pretty much in college that are running this program.

What does it mean to you to kind of foster and mentor the next generation of athletes?

- I think we just love the sport so much and we want to give back to the community and give back to like where we run every day.

And so it's really cool to show the next generation like why we love the sport so much and just encourage them to find the same passion that we do.

- Well, thank you so much for sharing this information.

I'm sure parents and grandparents who are interested in this would love to get more information.

If you would like to sign a child up, or even volunteer, or find a way to support this organization, the website is on your screen right there.

It's Run Your City, Salt Lake City Chapter.

Just head to that website and check it out.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you for watching "Contact".

(upbeat music) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.

If you work for a nonprofit and would like to be on Contact, please visit pbs.org/contact