Napa Junction hosts a 5-K race for all ages
More than 100 runners and walkers on Saturday participated in a 5-K race designed to celebrate wellness among all age groups, including the very young.
Napa Junction Magnet School’s physical education teacher Nicholas Westfall organized the first “Eat well. Sleep Well. Move Well,” a 5-K race at Wetlands Edge Park to teach his young students a “full, complete picture of heath” and fight childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity, Westfall said, is a “social problem that requires a social solution.”
Saturday’s event was free in order to break all social-economic barriers and allow anyone to come out and participate.
“You get people together. You hold each other accountable for eating better, sleeping better, moving better…we can make a difference,” Westfall said before he greeted a young runner at the finish line — an inflatable yellow arch Westfall brought to the event.
Westfall, who joined Napa Junction’s staff earlier this year, organized the event with support from Napa Junction’s Parent Teacher Association and other volunteers, including UC Master Gardeners members who gave tips on how to grow vegetables.
The volunteers brought water, bananas and other fresh fruits. A registered nurse and others managed the first-aid table.
George Lara, a PTA board member and Napa Junction parent, said American Canyon High School teen volunteers came early to help set up the event.
The 5-K race was mostly low tech. Westfall, a 2025 California Teacher of the Year, an award he received for his work at Alexander Hamilton Senior High School in Los Angeles, brought his own PA system, part of which was donated by an uncle. Napa Junction principal Megan De La Mater provided the generator.
The 5-K race, the volunteers said, was a fun event, one that supports wellness for children.
“We wanted to jump on board and support (it) any way that we could,” said PTA president Lisol Petsas, who came with her family.
American Canyon resident Gaby Maldonado pushed her 18-month-old niece, Emily, in a stroller. She walked the 5-K to exercise and to support the neighborhood. “It was lovely,” Maldonado said.
Fifteen-year-old Alexa Nevas, of Vallejo, came with her twin sister, Isabella, and their older sister, Yeimi. Alexa came because she wanted to resume running, she said.
Jason Holland, American Canyon Middle School’s track and field coach, ran the race with his team. He came to support the kids, he said.
Dorothy Ramos, athletic director at American Canyon Middle School, came with 9-year-old daughter Tatum and son, Klay, 4.
Ramos, whose daughter attends Napa Junction – her own alma mater – also came to support ACMS’ cross-country team.
Ramos enjoyed watching high schoolers mingle with middle school students. A lot of these high school students started running cross country at the middle school, she said.
Events like the 5-K draws families, Ramos said, as a dozen of people cheered on runners at the finish line. “It gets the community together.”
There is no pressure to win, she added, regarding the fun run. “You just feel good at the end.”
Westfall plans another event in the spring.
