🔒First Tee’s Christy Miller runs for a cause

As many familiar with volunteerism will tell you, people would rather give $10 instead of 10 minutes. It’s just a reflection of our busy lives.

Christy Miller is an outlier. She’ll give 10,000 steps (more like 70,000) to raise funds and awareness for causes she cares about.

All of this after hours in her role as development director for First Tee Connecticut. She shepherds statewide fundraising efforts for the national organization that teaches character to youth through the game of golf.

In 2020, with a million-dollar budget, First Tee Connecticut served 61,000 kids through in-school and outreach programs and golf lessons. She has held her post for six years.

Prior to joining The First Tee, Miller worked for 13 years at Avon marketing and communications agency Gold, Orluk & Partners, where she focused on cause marketing, client engagement and event management, overseeing large-scale events, conferences and camps that raised over $7 million for various charities, including the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center and Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health.

Miller, 50, said her athletic advocacy combines her passion for physical activity — running in particular — and the causes she supports.

“Sometimes it’s not even about raising money … it’s about raising awareness,” she said while sipping a beverage outside a West Hartford coffee shop. One gets the sense she would rather be running than sitting during an hour-long talk.

Miller likes to push herself physically beyond running. One example is pushups, which she admits to not liking all that much. She embraced a challenge from a friend to do 22 pushups a day for 22 days to raise awareness for service members who commit suicide. She raised awareness for the cause through videos posted on her social media accounts.

“When someone challenges me to do something, I will,” she said.

She also supported veterans through a 5-mile “Run to Home Base” race at Fenway Park in Boston, which supports combat veterans.

“It was such a great event. There were lots of military there that ran in full uniform. I’m neither pro- nor anti-military. I grew up a Red Sox fan,” she said.

Her causes are many. She has supported people fighting the stigma of mental health; the battle against cancers; and, refugee causes. She has also advocated for Black Lives Matters, including an eight-minute, 46-second run to honor George Floyd, the Minneapolis resident murdered by a police officer.

“It’s a win/win situation for me. I’m being physically active while supporting good causes. It feels right,” said Miller, a mother of a high school junior, adding that she backs causes that resonate with her.

COVID-19 didn’t slow her stride. She ran several virtual races over the summer to promote social justice.

“I’ve always been socially active but more so as I’ve aged,” she said. “With almost all of my fitness activities there is a reason behind it.”

She ticked them off: fitness, raising money, and raising awareness.

“There are a lot of great causes out there. I’ve put on a lot of miles. It’s hard when you care about a lot of things,” Miller said.

Running around towns

The West Hartford resident grew up a self-described tomboy playing traditional sports like softball and basketball. She’s now an avid runner with various goals, including membership in Run 169 Towns Society, a group that promotes running in 5Ks in every town and city across the state. As of early April, she had completed races in 53 towns.

While she’s making her way through Connecticut, Miller has her eye on a much larger goal: the Boston Marathon.

“But I won’t get into it because of my speed,” she says with a laugh.

She wants to run to support friends with autism and MS. “I’ll eventually get into that race,” she said while acknowledging it will be a challenge to raise the necessary funds.

Miller is a woman who likes challenges. She was 38 when she ran her first marathon. A dozen years later she has crossed the finish line 19 times. Among her accomplishments are the David Polk Charity Award one year for raising the most money at the Hartford Marathon to honor a former director of the First Tee.

She thought Hartford, her first marathon, would satiate her desire once she completed that goal. Now she runs at least one annually but with a twist.

“I try not to run the same race or the same state,” Miller said.

She has also run a trans-national marathon over the Canadian border and completed the “Disney Dopey Challenge,” which involves running a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and full 26.1-mile marathon over four days.

For finishing that, she earned the “Dopey” medal. Next on her list would be a European marathon.

Miller ties up her sneakers and runs four to five times a week.

“It gets my mind in the right place for the day,” she said.

A longtime solo runner, she now embraces running as part of a group.

“It makes me get out of bed when I don’t want to run. I love talking about running. I could do it all day,” she said.