Congrats to Hopewell’s ‘Kids of Steel’ in the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon!

A week after hosting the 2026 NFL Draft, the city of Pittsburgh was once again filled with people over the weekend as it was race weekend in the “Burgh.

On Sunday, it was the Pittsburgh Marathon and a day earlier, it was the kids turn as they ran in the Chick-Fil-A Pittsburgh Kids Marathon.

We bring this up because 172 students in the Hopewell elementary schools took part, which was exciting to see.

A&S Federal Credit Union are proud sponsors of Hopewell Boys and Girls High School, Junior High and Youth Sports.

These students and teachers have been practicing after school once a week since January for this event and named this group of kids, “Kids of Steel”.

This ended up being a 1-mile run/walk for these students as this began on the North Shore on General Robinson Street by PNC Park and after going across the Andy Warhol Bridge, they finished up near Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh.

Vikings Sports Now had the pleasure of talking with the coordinators of this program, who are teachers within the district- Amanda Erwin, Katie Snyder and Sarah Rizzutto.

“Hopewell Elementary restarted the program last year after not having it for many years”, said Amanda Erwin, Hopewell 2nd grade teacher and one of the coaches of Kids of Steel. “I was at a monthly PTA meeting, and some parents were asking why we didn’t do it anymore. Truly, we didn’t have an answer other than no one had taken it over when the last teacher left. Miss Katie Snyder, kindergarten teacher, runs the half marathon each year and said, “Let’s do it!” and here we are!”

“Last year we had around 150 students and this year we had 172 register from our school! We really wanted to give the kids something to work towards and look forward to with their friends. A lot of kids are involved in sports outside of school, but there are some who never get to experience practices, games, or events with friends. We wanted to give all students the opportunity to join a healthy activity that was wasn’t expensive or a huge time commitment for their families. Selfishly, my daughter started kindergarten last year and I wanted her to experience the Kids of Steel program and marathon because it is an amazing opportunity.”

“Our previous PE teacher got the ball rolling years ago and I think we all fell in love with the idea of it through her love of running and supporting the students,'” Katie Snyder/Kindergarten tells VSN. “After Covid, we agreed to bring it back. We were expecting 30-40 kids and were amazed with 170 students our first year!

“The Kids of Steel program at Hopewell Elementary had 172 participants,” said Sarah Rizzutto/3rd grade teacher. “We could not have done this without the support of teacher and parent volunteers. Each practice we were able to have a few stations that included games involving some type of movement activity and also have stations that were focused on running our school course that was mapped out by one of our coaches to build endurance for the KOS race.

This is wonderful event and a tip of the cap to Erwin, Snyder, Rizzutto and others in the district for taking the lead and making this happen for these students.

“The joy of the students feeling a sense of accomplishment and working hard toward a goal is the reason we would love to make it an every year program if we continue to get the community support,” said Snyder.

“Our students showed up again in January ready to run and showed their Viking Spirit on race day! We have learned a lot over the last two years of running the program and are making changes that benefit everyone, especially the students! Our goal is to make it bigger and better each year moving forward. This program is truly family centered and gives the entire family something to look forward to in May.”

“Aside from Miss. Snyder, Miss Rizzutto (3^rd grade teacher), and myself, we had some phenomenal PTA parents support us as well,” said Erwin. “Without the help of teacher volunteers, Kait Daley, Angela Markowitz, Katie Phillips, Kasey Hoth, Christy Morely, Jaime Snyder, Ali Klesser, Bethany Pistorius, and her children/students of HASD, James & Grace Pistorius, we really would not have been able to successfully run this program with 172 students.”

“Every week, the students participated in practice that consisted of stretching, walking to warm up, and then they would split into four groups depending on grade level to complete stations. The practices were a ton of fun and really amped up the excitement for the marathon! We will 100% continue the Kids of Steel program moving into next year with hopes of even more participants! We are so proud of the students and their hard work!”

All 3 of Hopewell’s elementary schools took part in the marathon. Anne Beitler and Leah Meehan were the coaches at Margaret Ross Elementary.

Two nice things was that Margaret Roos got a $500 Transportation grant from Kids of Steel which allowed them to bus kids and families to the event.

Also, P3R group who runs Kids of Steel awarded our MR coaches with Rookie of the Year out of all the new groups participating.

The Independence elementary team was coached by PTA parent Casey Biser.

Over the weekend, Vikings Sports Now posted a message on Facebook asking for parents to send pictures of their kids that took part in this event.

Here were just some of the participants from Hopewell that were in Pittsburgh for the Pgh Kids Marathon. If you’d like to get your child’s picture included in this post, it’s not too late, just text me a picture and the name of your child and I’d be glad to add them.

Malia Markowitz, Mila Hardy, Calliope Hoth, Sloan Erwin, Collins Iorio, Gia Markowitz, Nora Hardy

Penelope Hoth and Adalynn Rogers

Penelope Hoth, Jay Iorio, Calliope Hoth, Sloan Erwin, Collins Iorio

Lauren Merrihew, 1st Grade Margret Ross

Dominic Martini who is in kindergarten at Margret Ross.

Collins Iorio, Calliope Hoth, Amanda Erwin (Hopewell teacher/one of organizers of Kids of Steel Program), Mindy Cleary (1st grade teacher), Colby Erwin, Carolyn Iorio.