MikeyStrong Fun Run / Walk

The MikeyStrong Fun Run / Walk is a beach 5K in Indialantic, Florida, held annually at the Mikey Goodwin Playground at James H. Nance Park in honor of Mikey Goodwin’s birthday. It is a memorial event for Mikey, a 19-year-old student athlete who was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or DIPG, and died from the disease. The event is built as a fun run and walk rather than a hard-core race day, with an in-person 5K, a virtual 5K option, and Mikey’s Turkey Dash, a short run for kids 12 and under. The course runs on the beach, so the setting is simple: sand, ocean, and a community gathering around one family’s fight against a rare childhood brain cancer. The fundraising is the point of the day. All profits go toward DIPG research and help for people battling the disease, and the Mikey Goodwin Research Fund at UF Shands supports children and young adults with DIPG and other brain cancers. The group says 95% of funds raised are donated to help others, with corporate donors matching proceeds from Mikey’s fund, and past donations have gone to Candlelighters of Brevard, Inc., local families facing DIPG, and broader cure-focused work.