While the legs and the feet of a runner may falter, the Be the Light 5K, an annual event hosted by UCA Delta Zeta’s Epsilon Xi Chapter, did not.

Sept. 7 marked the Be the Light 5K’s fourth year. The event was first held in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from returning the following year.

In fall 2022, however, the run began again and has not stopped since.

Lauren Lopez, a Delta Zeta alumna, in partnership with her sorority cohort, initiated it after her brother, Cameron Maynard, died by suicide in 2019.

Lopez said the tragedy of her brother’s passing inspired her to take a stand, telling her sisters that “we need to do something.”

Lopez said she thought the event would meet its end after she graduated in 2020, but instead, “it kind of exploded.”

The funding from the 5K has been used to expand marketing for suicide prevention awareness in Conway and Texarkana, Lopez’s hometown.

In spring 2021, the Arkansas Foundation for Suicide Prevention used a portion of the funding to aid the Senate in creating the 988 hotline.

“Just about everything I do is related to the cause,” Lopez said.

Lopez also owns a bakery called “Be the Light,” where funds are donated to AFSP.

“Cameron was the kind of person that gave up his lunch in school to kids who didn’t have any,” Lopez said.

She said the driving force behind every action he took was a desire to serve; his main goal was to help other people.

Lopez said he believed that helping people was an assignment, one he took to heart.

She said Maynard had “a special heart of gold” and that she wanted to share that with people who did not get the chance to meet him.

The annual event began to honor Maynard and raise funds toward preventing suicide, but it has expanded since.

Judith Ramirez, junior psychology major and business management minor, explained that the event is also held to honor and support Lopez, their sister, her family and the community. 

Over 100 people, pushing past burning legs and feet, participated in the 5K to run and walk roughly 370 miles.

Kylie Horn, a freshman elementary education major and member of Delta Zeta, said she came to support the cause and get involved in her sorority.

Emma Kate Johnson, a freshman marketing major and new Delta Zeta member, had a similar story to tell.

“In our first meeting they told us that our first philanthropy event was coming up,” Johnson said. 

Delta Zeta insisted they would make their best memories by coming together with their sisters to support a cause.

Joanna Lopez, Lauren Lopez’s mother-in-law, came out to support both the cause and the family.

She said the event was bittersweet for her “because a life was gone too soon.”

The event’s inception may have been born from the dark, but Lauren Lopez and Delta Zeta are committed to walking in the reminder that every light that’s been dimmed can be turned on.