Chocolate Chronicles
Ginger Rogers
Getting Back Up for the Ones We Lost
Ginger has been involved with the Hot Chocolate Run since 2017, the year her good friend Jo Ringer was killed in a domestic violence homicide. Ginger was determined that Jo and her story would not be forgotten, and that a spotlight was put on the idea that "there are people willing to help, who will listen and believe you, that there are resources available, that there are ways out for anybody else who's stuck in that situation and thinks they can't get out."
Jo's death deeply affected Ginger, who has found Safe Passage and the Hot Chocolate Run to be "an outlet, a purpose" that "lets people know that Jo is so much more than just what happened to her." Ginger sees her participation as an act of breaking silence, not just the silence around the violence itself, but "the silence of feeling guilty for everything else that comes because of that violence." She wants people to know that getting help is "not impossible," even if it isn't always easy, and she urges anyone who is struggling to be willing to be vulnerable and accept help.
At last year's run, Ginger had been unable to train for most of the year, and she tripped during the race. She remembers, "I had no plans of getting back up." But she looked up and saw a teammate standing at the top of the hill with a sign that said "Go Team Jo!" Ginger thought to herself, "This is bigger than me," got up, and ran the rest of the race. For her, that moment captures "the true power behind what the Hot Chocolate Run is."
The Hot Chocolate Run offers Ginger an "emotional juxtaposition", a day that forever brings tears, smiles, hugs, and compliments from strangers, alongside deep emotion from those who knew Jo personally. It can be exhausting, she says, to hold both at once. But it is also a reminder of something she holds onto: that in spite of the sorrow, "Jo did an awesome job of bringing so many people together and creating a family for her daughter that didn't exist before." Jo's daughter was just 19 years old when her mother was murdered, navigating unimaginable loss as a young adult without a parent. The community that has gathered in Jo's name - on that hill, in the cold, every December- is part of the family that formed in her wake. For Ginger, that is what keeps her coming back.
Get back up. Run for Jo.
Ginger fell during the race and almost stayed down. But she looked up, saw a sign that said "Go Team Jo!" and remembered: this is bigger than me. She got up and finished.
That is what the Hot Chocolate Run offers. Not just a fundraiser, but a reason to keep going, even when it hurts. Ginger runs so that Jo's story is not reduced to her death, but defined by the love she left behind: a daughter, a family, a community that didn't exist before.
You can be part of that community. Register for the Hot Chocolate Run, start a fundraising team, and show survivors that there are people willing to listen, to believe, and to help. Every dollar you raise tells someone in an impossible situation that there is a way out.
Jo brought people together. Ginger keeps that going. Now it's your turn.
Sign up today. Carry her name. Be the sign at the top of the hill.