Rising Hearts at the 129th Boston Marathon 2025
Stay tuned to this page for updates, tentative schedule of events and fundraising opportunities!
Rising Hearts is committed to helping the running and outdoor spaces a more safe, supportive, diverse, inclusive, accessible and equitable space, not just for Indigenous runners, but for everyone who enjoys movement and who wants to see themselves in these spaces!
That’s why, we are excited to continue our partnership with the BAA and On Running to bring more community experience to this world major marathon as we continue to advocate for improved paths forward for representation, diversity, equity, access, and safety in the run and movement spaces we want to see ourselves in and be part of.
Stay tuned for more announcements, fundraisers and content via our newsletters, blogs and socials!
Tentative Schedule of Events:
+ 4/18: Indigenous / Community Runners Panel (Still being confirmed)
Location: Boston Marathon Expo | TBD
+ 4/19: 09:30-11:30AM Meet and greet / blessing of runners with Rising Hearts x On Running
Representation and Kinship Building in the Run Community (Panelists being confirmed)
Location: Lyrik, 400 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02115
Sponsor VENUE support: On Running
Orgs Present: Rising Hearts, Native Strength Revolution, Wings of America, More to Be Added
Agenda:
+ Welcome everyone (9:30am)
+ Land Blessing (9:35am)
+ Blessing of Runners (09:45am)
+ Representation and Kinship Building Panel (10am - 30min)
+ Light food and refreshments
+ Meet and greet (Concludes 11:30am)
Kali KO Mequinonoag Reis and Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone
Kali KO Mequinonoag Reis (Seaconke Wampanoag, Cape Verde)
Citizen of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Kali is the first Indigenous Woman fighter to become a World Boxing Champion. First Recipient of the Rhode Island Community Hero Award. the North American Indigenous Athletic Hall of Fame in January 2022. She received the “Key to the City '' in her hometown city of East Providence Rhode Island in front of her friends and family. Reis is also the proud recipient of the “Misty Upham Award” which was presented at the 2022 Red Nation International Film Festivals tribute award ceremony. Kali has also attained 6 World Titles in 2 weight classes picking up the WBA IBO & WBO Super Lightweight World titles in 2021/2022; IBA UBF & WBC Middleweight titles 2015/2016. Kali’s win of the WBC Middleweight World Title made history as the first world title fought in New Zealand. Kali also made history when she participated in HBOs’ first ever Women’s televised bout in 2018.
In 2021 - Catch the Fair One; it was Kali’s acting debut, lead roll and writing credit. This film highlights one of Kali’s causes. The film highlights the MMIW epidemic & earned a Special Jury Mention award at the Tribeca film festival. In March that same year an Indie Film Spirit Award nominee for Best Female Lead Actress was announced for Reis’ performance. Kali also won the Best Actress award at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2021 for the film. The film released February 2022 & Reis was nominated for Breakthrough Performer at the 2022 Gotham awards. Kali is building a career as an actor including a part in ‘Asphalt City’ that premiered March 29 2024 as well as the film ‘Mercy’ with Chris Pratt & Rebecca Ferguson which is currently in post production.
Living up to her given name Mequinonoag [Many Feathers/Many Talents], Kali is a certified Motorcycle/Small Engines Technician and has worked as a Residential Counselor since 2009. She has found healing in sharing her story & mentoring troubled youth with a relatable approach, as well as traveling to speak with and support various communities in hopes of being a positive example to “Never throw in the towel no matter what punches life throws at you”.
“Many Feathers” Kali Reis aspires to continue finding ways to give a “voice to the voiceless”; whether it be fighting inside or outside of the ring or even in front of a camera telling OUR STORIES. She won’t “stop until that bell rings”!
Kali was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work in True Detective with the ceremony premiering live September 15, 2024. Kali is representing her community powerfully!
Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone (Sičangu Lakota)
Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, is a fourth generation runner, athlete advocate, community organizer, project manager, filmmaker, founder of Rising Hearts and a mom to a 3 year old and 1 year old twin girls.
Since the 2019 Boston Marathon, she uses her platform - #RunningForJustice, to help raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives by dedicating the miles she runs to a missing or murdered Indigenous person - their families, survivors and advocates WHILE CONTINUOUSLY AND PASSIONATELY FUNDRAISING TO GIVE BACK TO THE HEART WORK THE FAMILIES, ADVOCATES AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE CONSTANTLY DOING.
Jordan is committed to helping make the running and community spaces a more equitable, safe, visible, supportive, diverse, inclusive, affordable and accessible place for people today and the next generations through storytelling, Rising Hearts Race organizing, Running with Purpose Athlete Advocate program and Running On Native Lands programs.
Races like the Boston Marathon aren’t cheap, so if you’d like to help sponsor Kali and Jordan (4 other Rising Hearts runners that will be there as well including our Athlete Advocates), make a donation or reach out to info@rising-hearts.org:
RUNNING FOR RISING HEARTS
I'm raising $5,000 for Rising Hearts! My first baby. As the founder and Lead Organizer Rising Hearts since January 2017, it's been my purpose and passion to create a community and platform that brings community together. Rising Hearts started off as an organization that only focused on Indigenous communities and helping to grassroots organize to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would have crossed my own Tribe and community in South Dakota. Since then, RH has evolved, grown, adapted, and more recently, pivoted in 2020, after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Nina Pop, to live in the more Indigenous way of being and living, Mitakuye Oyasin (We Are All Related), so we creating programming and fundraising efforts to use all forms of movement to bring people together, raise awareness of the things that matter, and create a better future for the next generations. Now, as a mom to a 3 year old and 1 year old twins, it's been a deeper mission to creating a world for them and our people today, to be unapologetically themselves, to be in safe spaces, to advocate for the people and the Earth, and building up community so that we can be a good relative to each other. At the 2019 Boston Marathon, my world changed. I dedicated my run to missing and murdered Indigenous women and peoples. A crisis that has gone invisible, a fight that has so many obstacles and jurisdictional loopholes for the loved ones, and not enough resources for the families and advocates to utilize to find their loved ones and fight for justice. Since then, I used the platform to shine a light on these efforts, fundraise, support community, and help Rising Hearts be an organization that can share its resources with community. Now, in our biggest year yet, our make it or break it year to create a financially stable future for Rising Hearts, my heart and legs will help raise funds for the heart work we get to do!
Notable Mentions of our Impact:
We've helped bring runners to races like the Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, She Is Beautiful 5k/10k, Orca Half Marathon, Cocodona 250, Western States Endurance Run 100, Toronto Marathon, and part of running events like The Running Event in Austin TX since 2022! We have over a dozen partnerships with brands and community. Helping to connect organizations and Race Directors with Indigenous Peoples to implement and adopt land acknowledgements at their events, support 36 RH Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates in their passions, over 15 RH Charity Runners, create workshops and panels to help inform community and bring community together. We are so honored to get to be able to do this work, and we hope with these efforts, we can make an impact for Rising Hearts. We have made 4 short films to elevate community voices, along with a few other mini short films! www.risinghearts.org and www.risinghearts.org/stories
Mission:
Rising Hearts is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to amplifying community voices through kinship, movement advocacy, and storytelling. We empower diverse communities by fostering intersectional collaboration, promoting cultural integrity, and creating meaningful change for the next generations. Through our programs, we inspire collective action, elevate Indigenous and community centered narratives, creating safe and supportive spaces, and mobilize support for those in need.
Much of the heart work we prioritize is cultivating kinship with brands, companies and groups, while creating meaningful collaborations with the Rising Hearts athletes, community partners and broader movement community.
Vision:
To foster a world where diverse voices and bodies are amplified, celebrated, protected, and empowered through authentic kinship, meaningful collaboration, and advocacy. Rising Hearts envisions a future where meaningful connections between athletes, community partners, and allies spark collective action, inspire positive change, and elevate the stories that unite and strengthen our diverse communities.
Our Programs:
Running On Native Lands Initiative
Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates
Rising Hearts Stories | Filmmaking
Virtual Movement Events | Race Organizing
You Are Loved Community Grant Initiative
RH Charity Runners Program
Consulting - DEI / Collab opportunities / Facilitating Connections / Workshops
Roles: Programs Coordinator (PTE), Executive Director/Lead Organizer (FTE)
We are so excited to be in Boston, with community, celebrating community and putting it all out there with the lands as we all run from Hopkinton to Boylston!
We are also very exited to know that some of our Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates, and Charity runners for Rising Hearts will be with us as well. We will be sure update this page with everyone’s bib! And you’ll get a chance to meet most of them at our Meet and Greet on Saturday April 19th!