Chocolate Chronicles
Cara Bergstrom-Lynch
She Ran So Alyssiah Would Not Be Forgotten
Cara finds the trip to Northampton each December for the Hot Chocolate Run "very much worth the drive." Cara is a professor who teaches about domestic and interpersonal violence, as well as gender and sexuality, and she participates in the Hot Chocolate Run in remembrance of a student, Alyssiah Wiley. Alyssiah had been a sophomore in college, studying psychology and biology, and she was killed in 2013 in a domestic violence homicide. Cara explains, "I just really wanted to do something to remember her, to keep her memory alive, and to share all that she offered to the world with my students. I didn't want anyone to forget about her." When Cara heard about the Hot Chocolate Run, she was determined to run. She quickly did the couch to 5k program, running every day in order to be ready. When she finished her first Hot Chocolate Run, she remembers, "I felt Alyssiah with me."
Cara has become an annual Hot Chocolate Run participant, not only because "the hot chocolate is wonderful, but more than that, the community of people who are there. It's a fun event, but it has a really serious purpose, and you are very purpose-driven, and it matters to me so much." Each year, Cara wears a white ribbon as she runs with the names of all the people who have donated, and keeps them in her office. Over the years, she has raised an incredible $25,349 for Safe Passage, one small donation at a time. It blows her away every year to look at all the names on her ribbons.
When asked about her connection to Safe Passage and the Hot Chocolate Run, Cara explains, "I see the work you're doing, and I feel thankful you're there in your community. I just feel good being a small part of that support, and it's such a wonderful community of runners and walkers and people who clearly care deeply about the work you're doing, and it's fun." As a survivor herself, Cara sees herself in much of the work that Safe Passage is doing, and she urges others to participate: "there's no pressure to do anything other than just show up and be who you are in that space. I've never felt it be a place where it triggers memories. You've made a space where it just feels like it's fun, and we're doing something really positive in this community together."
Cara's favorite years of the Hot Chocolate Run have been the years that her kids have participated with her. The first year that they ran with her, she felt that she was doing it not only for herself, but also for "a better world for my children, and for an organization that is working towards that." Cara plans to continue participating in the Hot Chocolate Run however she can, telling us "My running days are sort of over. I ran for the first 10 years of the Hot Chocolate Run, and now my feet don't let me run anymore, but they let me walk still. I'll crawl if I have to."
One runner, $25,349 raised. One step at a time.
Cara turned grief into action, and you can too. This December, join the Hot Chocolate Run not just to walk or run, but to fundraise. Start a team, share your reason, and ask your community to give. Every donation, big or small, fuels Safe Passage's lifesaving work for survivors.
You don't need to be fast- Cara walks now and says she'd crawl if she had to. Just show up, like she does, and be part of something positive.
Sign up, start your fundraiser, and carry hope with every step. Survivors are counting on you.
Support Cara and her mission here: p2p.onecause.com/hcr2026/cara-bergstrom-lynch