Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Morgan.
Brandon, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The Crim Fitness Foundation just celebrated its 48th birthday.
In 1977, then-Speaker of the Michigan House, Bobby Crim, started the Bobby Crim Road Race in downtown Flint. The 10-mile event was created support Special Olympians and other athletes with physical and cognitive disabilities. The event started modestly with roughly 500 participants but grew a loyal following. Today, there are more than 250,000 finishers and the HAP CareSource Crim Festival of Races sees more than 10,000 participants a year across a variety of distances. In 2025, the events saw 10,614 entries from 410 Michigan cities, 38 states, and 7 foreign nations including Canada, Costa Rica, Kenya, Hong Kong, Germany, and Denmark.
The Crim Festival of Races has become one of the premier races in the country receiving high praise from outlets like Running USA. The events are also the flagship of the Crim Fitness Foundation, which was incorporated in 2005. The Crim Fitness Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization with more than 30 full-time staff who serve the physical, social, and mental wellbeing needs of more than 20,000 Flint and Genesee County residents each year through more than 400 events and programs.
The Foundation currently offers a variety of programs, including but not limited to: a full race series with 8 events (in addition to the Festival of Races); a Crim Training Program with more than 60 groups which host more than 1,300 trainees; a youth running initiative with 13 local clubs and 500 members; Crim Sports, which serves more than 2,000 K-6 youth each year in a variety of competitive and intramural sports at no cost to families; the CANUSA Games, an international sports tournament held annually with our sister-city of Hamilton, ON, which is nearly 70 years old; Mindfulness and mental wellbeing programs; and Neighborhood Impact work, which includes food systems and access, health policy advocacy, environmental change, and much more.
In short, what started in 1977 as a race has blossomed into one of Michigan’s largest events which supports the work of a foundation focused on improving all aspects of physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a journey. Since 2005, the Foundation has grown from just a handful of staff to supporting more than 30 individuals. During that time, we’ve navigated the gauntlet of what all nonprofits deal with: funding uncertainty. We’ve managed to have a high level of success in being awarded grants that have allowed us to continue to grow and expand our work.
In 2025, for the first time in nearly 20 years, we’ve moved into a brand-new facility. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen participant numbers across programs return to normal after the pandemic in 2020 and the Flint Water Emergency in 2016. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s worth a Google.
Flint has remained an amazing community of amazing people. It’s a great place to live and work but it has it’s challenges, too. With the nearly complete exodus of General Motors our economy and school systems have had to take a new shape – but, the City of Flint is also not what the media portrays. It is a vibrant place and we are always glad to host people from across the planet at our race events so they can see just how much our community rallies around one another and around the concept of overall wellbeing and quality of life.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets the Crim apart from other organizations is our partnerships. We partner with over 100 other agencies, for-profit, nonprofit, and civic, to avoid duplication of services and to focus on wellness of all kinds.
We are also likely unique in that one of our major funding mechanisms is races and endurance events. We have grants, donor, corporate partners, and everything else…but we don’t have galas or black-tie events. We have races!
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Even though we have been in the community a long time, many people still identify us as “the big race on the fourth Saturday in August.” Even locally, we are continually educating residents about the plethora of free programs that are available to them through the foundaiton.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crim.org
- Instagram: @crim_events / @crimfitnessfoundation
- Facebook: facebook.com/crimfestivalofraces and facebook.com/crimfestivalofraces
- Other: https://crimraces.org
