• by Les Luchter , over 1 hour ago

For people with untreated clubfoot, a birth defect where a foot is twisted inward and downward, walking -- let alone running -- can be laborious.

An unspecified number of New York City runners recently ran an aggregate 2,792 miles to raise awareness and donations for the nonprofit Miraclefeet, which funds clubfoot treatment for children worldwide.

But this wasn’t your typical charity run.

Instead, the runners were completing -- and mapping via the Strava GPS-tracking app  -- 597 separate routes across lower Manhattan, with each route’s outline forming images like birds, legs and even the word “Miracle.” The project was undertaken over 36 days, finishing on April 2.

In the pro bono campaign, Klick Health then used these maps, frame by frame, as the visuals in “Miles to Miracle,” a 3-minute film that tells the story of how access to clubfoot treatment transformed the life of a girl, also named “Miracle.”

The name wasn’t made up. The film’s story was inspired by a real Liberian girl named Miracle, as described by Nicholas Kristof in a 2017 New York Times column, Klick associate creative director (ACD)  Kate Maldjian told Marketing Daily.

To find people to run and map the routes in downtown Manhattan, Klick turned its sights to uptown Manhattan -- specifically to the Upper East Side Run Club, which recruited many of the runners. 

“As runners, we never take for granted the ability to move,” Nicholas Synan, chief running officer of the club, said in a press release. “Being able to have every step go toward a greater impact is really special to us.”

The runners’ real movements also shaped the sound of the animated film, “turning real footprints into part of the score,” stated another Klick ACD, Dan Macena. in the release.

“By inviting the running community to help create this film, our goal is to draw attention to the fact that clubfoot is highly treatable, yet too many children still grow up without care simply because of where they are born,” added Daphne de Souza Lima Sorensen, CEO of MiracleFeet. “A simple treatment is all that stands between a life of disability, stigma, and exclusion, and one of mobility, independence, and opportunity.”

For maximum awareness, the film launched in conjunction with World Clubfoot Day, June 3, on both Miraclefeet.organd a dedicated website,

To drive viewership, Klick has been relying mostly on sharing, starting with each runner not only contributing to the film, but distributing it.

The film’s call to action is to visit Miraclefeet’s website and make a donation.

While all 597 mapped routes are available on Strava, the nonprofit is also featuring nine “of the most iconic frames” in an app collection called the MiracleFeet Circuit, which is also raising awareness and soliciting donations. “9 NYC Routes. 1 Mission. Endless possibilities,” reads the invitation to runners. “Run the NYC routes behind the film Miles to Miracle — the first-ever short film drawn from footsteps to help change the future for children with clubfoot.” The selected routes include “The Leaf (a 3-mile fun run), The Bird (a classic 10K), and The Stride (a 7.72-mile challenge).”

“In low- and middle-income countries,” said Miraclefeet, “80% of children born with clubfoot lack access to care, even though treatment is low-cost and nonsurgical.”

The treatment supplied by Miraclefeet costs an average of $500 per child. Since its founding in 2010, the organization has helped more than 130,000 children in 39 countries.