The 2nd Annual Lauren Giddings 5K will take place Saturday at Amerson River Park to honor the law student's memory. Giddings was brutally murdered by her neighbor in 2011.
The event is organized by the Association of Women Law Students, or AWLS, at Mercer's Law School, where Giddings was a student.
Hannah Kicklighter, fall co-philanthropy chair for AWLS, said not only was Giddings involved with the organization when she was at Mercer, but she cared about the whole Macon community.
"We just really feel a lot of respect for her and what she did for our community in Macon while she was here, so we just wanted to have the chance to honor her life in a special way," Kicklighter said.
Money raised from the race will go towards the Lauren Giddings Scholarship.
The scholarship will be given to a third-year law student and member of AWLS to help with preparation expenses for the bar exam.
"Most people don't realize that the expenses to study for the bar are pretty staggering, and you cannot get loans to pay for those expenses," Kicklighter said. "So a lot of people are stuck trying to figure out how to make ends meet and pay for those last minute expenses."
Kicklighter says they made the scholarship go towards those costs, because Giddings was studying for the bar when she was killed.
Orange Theory Fitness in Macon is one of the sponsors for the race this year. They will help the runners warm up and have raffles for free classes.
"It's really exciting to have the support from our local businesses in Macon, especially with Orange Theory being so new, they've been so willing to just jump in and help out as much as possible," Kicklighter said.
Z Beans Coffee will also be sponsoring the race and have coffee available to runners.
Kicklighter says they're really excited to see the growing support from the school and the community.
"We have more involvement with our student organizations around the law school, a lot of the student organizations are coming out and having tables and promoting the law school in different ways," Kicklighter said.
Last year Kicklighter said they had around 130 people sign up, and they're hoping that number grows.
"It's just really neat that we've started to get the word out a little bit more with the community itself, and hopefully more and more Macon community members will want to come out in the next few years to run," Kicklighter said.
The race will be held on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. at Amerson River Park.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and is $40, which includes a t-shirt. You can register here.
To donate to the Lauren Giddings Scholarship, click here and select 'Other Law Fund.' Type in 'Lauren Giddings Scholarship' in the 'Fund Name' line.
Clarification: Kicklighter stated you can't get loans for bar exam expenses. However, you can get private loans, just not government loans.