NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Marathon runner Abby Lokits remembers her first outdoor run after losing her sister-in-law, Alyssa Lokits.
“Oh, I cried, yeah,” Abby said. “It’s hard not to think about her every time I run.”
She thinks about her because she and Alyssa bonded over their love of being active outdoors, and because it’s what Alyssa was doing when she was killed. The 34-year-old Vanderbilt graduate was attacked and fatally shot last October while on the mill creek greenway.
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“I refused to run outside for, I can’t tell you how long after everything happened,” Abby said.
But Abby turned her anxiety and grief into action, starting a nonprofit in Alyssa’s honor called Free to Move, which aims to make the world safer for women to move outdoors.
“We have just as much ownership over these spaces as anybody else,” Abby said. “And we need to encourage women to understand that they have that ownership, to have that confidence.”
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The nonprofit is working with Metro Parks to create educational resources to empower women to keep themselves safe during outdoor activity and create infrastructure changes to make Metro parks safer.
“We also are working towards, you know, furthering research in this area,” Abby said. “Unfortunately, there is very little research done on women’s safety in active spaces.
On October 12, they will be honoring the anniversary of Alyssa’s death with a memorial walk and bench dedication at Orchard Bend Park.
“Throughout the rest of the week, we’re encouraging community members to get out to the greenways. Our goal is to collectively walk all 107 miles of Nashville greenways in seven days,” Abby said.
Abby says it’s a way to reclaim the space and carry on the legacy she knows Alyssa would be proud to leave behind.
For more information on the event, visit Free to Move’s website.
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