(BERKELEY HEIGHTS) --Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts (WIPA) will host the 18th Annual Berkeley Heights Mother’s Day 5K Race on Sunday, May 12 at 9:00am at Memorial Field in Berkeley Heights. The course runs through neighborhoods on rolling hills and flats and is a chip-timed, USATF-sanctioned Grand Prix event (500 points) with digital clocks at each mile. Registration is available at www.whartonarts.org.
On average, over 1,300 runners register for the race and this year will feature student performances by the New Jersey Youth Symphony and Paterson Music Project, both programs of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts, along the route. The event will raise funds for free after-school music programming and includes a free Tot Trot as well as additional activities for the family to enjoy together.
For nearly two decades, the Summit Area YMCA proudly hosted the Mother’s Day 5K, bringing together Berkeley Heights, Summit, New Providence and neighboring communities. This year, as the Y works diligently to ensure the new Berkeley Heights YMCA is ready to welcome members in early 2020, they’ve passed the baton to Wharton to host the 2019 Mother’s Day 5K and continue the tradition of this important community event. The Y believes that their mission to transform lives through their programs and services is mirrored in Wharton’s cause to change lives through music in the communities both serve.
Says Director of Development Pamela Palumbo, “Wharton Arts is honored to take over this highly successful Berkeley Heights event. With the blessings of the YMCA, we’re looking forward to carrying on the 5K’s tradition of community involvement and family fun!”
The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ mission is to provide the highest quality performing arts education to a wide range of students in a supportive and inclusive environment, where striving for personal excellence inspires and connects those we teach to the communities we serve.
Wharton is New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts education center serving over 1,500 students through a range of classes and ensembles including the 15 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, which serve 500 students in grades 3 – 12 by audition. Beginning with Out of the Box Music and Pathways classes for young children, Wharton offers private lessons, group classes, and ensembles for all ages and all abilities at the Performing Arts School. With the belief in the positive and unifying influence of music and the performing arts and that arts education should be accessible to all people regardless of their ability to pay, Wharton teaches all instruments and voice and has a robust musical theater program. Based in Paterson, New Jersey, the Paterson Music Project is an El Sistema-inspired program of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts that uses music as a vehicle for social change by empowering and inspiring children through the community experience of ensemble learning and playing.
Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 10 counties. All of Wharton’s extraordinary faculty members and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.
