A pair of local organizations is looking to raise awareness of violence prevention and raise funds for a scholarship in honor of a Northwest College student who was killed by a fellow student in 1996.

The first Run for Berry to Prevent Violence run is Saturday, April 29 at 9 a.m., with runners meeting at the memorial bench set up on campus a little over a year ago to honor Berry Bryant, an 18-year-old college freshman from Riverton who was murdered less than two months after arriving at the school.

“Our aim is to cherish her memory and honor the life she lived, while spreading awareness and education for violence prevention,” the organization explained in a post for the event.

“We really wanted to support the WE Campaign and we decided that this would be a good way to educate about assault and the different things that we're trying to do,” Soroptimist member Stacey Lange said.

The run is being sponsored by Powell Soroptimist and the WE Campaign.

“It's kind of why the WE Campaign and Soroptimist teamed up together is because we have a lot of the same passion for the community, which is really to just educate and empower women, especially at a local level,” fellow Soroptimist Cori Siggins said.

Siggins, who is also part of the WE Campaign, said the organization was founded roughly two years ago and is focused on women empowerment. They have put on a variety of classes focused on women’s self defense.

Runners can pick up a T-shirt/SWAG bag and sign-in at the bench near the bell tower between 8-9 a.m. 

Cost is $20 for preregistration, $25 day of the event. Children 10 and under can participate for free. All additional funds will be donated to the scholarship at Northwest College in Berry Bryant's name, the Berry Bryant Memorial Endowment, which was started in October of 2021, in honor of her life 25 years after her death.

The scholarship is for a woman who graduates from a Wyoming high school and is going to Northwest College, who has at least a 2.5 GPA and also does extracurricular activities.

Siggins said the groups asked for Berry’s mother’s permission to start the work on the run before they proceeded.

“The support from her mom has been phenomenal,” Siggins said. “We made sure we got her blessing before we move forward with any of this and I don't know if she will be there that day but she's been very supportive and very encouraging of our efforts.”

She said the Riverton Soroptimist Club has been very supportive as well as many people in the community.

Now, the groups are hoping for a good first run and many more to come in the years ahead.

For more information and to register, visit runforberry.com or email sipowellwy@gmail.com.