Community Highlights: Meet Becky Loveland of Added Strength Inc./Bub’s Run

Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Loveland.

Becky, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In 2018, our son Kelson, who had already battled through six years fraught with medical and developmental challenges and complications, was diagnosed with what would quickly be determined an inoperable brain tumor. After a year of chemotherapy which terrorized his already fragile little body, his tumor had grown, and we made the difficult decision to stop treatment. My husband Andy and I knew Kelson’s days were numbered – he had already far outlived the prognoses of countless specialists – and one day he asked, “what are we going to do when we lose him?” A runner since I was 12 years old, it had always lived in the recesses of my mind that we would organize a memorial 5K to honor him…the only thing we knew for certain then was that it would be called Bub’s Run.

In May 2020, at the height of Covid, Kelson earned his mighty wings just a few months shy of his 9th birthday. As his July birthday drew near, Kelson’s sister Emma Sue, who was 11 at the time, asked how we were going to celebrate now that he was in Heaven. Conversations quickly became a plan – we would organize a week-long kindness campaign in Kelson’s memory, and Emma Sue decided it would be called “7 Days of Kelson’s Kindness”. It was a beautiful success and this year, we celebrated our 6th Annual #7Days4Kelson (hashtag also compliments of the big sister), sprinkling big and small kindnesses like confetti far and wide, all in memory of our beloved boy.

The following March, despite the heavy Covid restrictions we were all still under, we decided to pull together our first Bub’s Run. We expected a few of our closest friends and family to come out to our neighborhood cul-de-sac and walk or run with us while sharing stories and memories of our little guy…what actually happened was 74 people came out, we baked chocolate chip cookies to award our race winners, and we raised $8000 for MUST Ministries!! And as we were packing things up afterward, from a clear blue sky fell just a few raindrops…we’ve never questioned that Kelson wanted to let us know he was there with us.

Since 2021, Bub’s Run has grown by leaps and bounds – an incredible testament to the life of our remarkable little boy. This past May, we registered nearly 400 participants and raised over $72,000 for Pediatric Hospice & Palliative Care of Georgia, a beautiful organization led by Kelson’s hospice nurse, Lanise, and which provides guidance and support to families facing the impossible reality of child loss. We have been enveloped in and are continuously humbled by the astounding kindness and generosity of not only our families and friends, but droves of people who although they never met Kelson, come alongside us year after year to make Bub’s Run a success.

In 2022, our family established Added Strength Inc., a non-profit organization devoted to keeping Kelson’s memory alive while supporting organizations that impacted his short life, and which continue to enrich the lives of others facing complex or enduring medical challenges, disabilities, and other exceptional needs. Through Added Strength, our family facilitates Bub’s Run, 7 Days of Kelson’s Kindness, and Kelson’s Curtains, a ministry providing colorful, reusable curtains to the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Throughout the existence of Added Strength, Bub’s Run and 7 Days, our family has been down one. 7 Days is the week ahead of Kelson’s birthday and by design, Bub’s Run is held the Saturday closest to May 5, which was the day he left us in 2020…along with the excitement of race day and the planning we do for 7 Days, our family also wrestles with the reality that another year has passed without Kelson here with us. And while we know those emotions are coming, they still pop up in places we don’t always expect and that is a challenge we will always face.

But in building Added Strength, we have been incredibly blessed. Aside from waiting on paperwork from the IRS, the process of establishing our organization was relatively painless, many thanks to the host of people who helped walk us through it. Bub’s Run has certainly endured some growing pains – for example, we would love to expand and become a Peachtree Qualifier, but our race location limits our ability to do so…and it means more to us to have the support of the community in honoring Kelson’s life than it does to blow up our numbers, so for now, we are grateful for the opportunity to host Bub’s Run with Emma Sue’s school, North Cobb Christian School, who has been a most gracious host and sponsor since 2022. We had some hiccups with race shirts in the beginning, but have found a fantastic partnership with Atlanta Screenprints and love doing business with David, Teagan and the rest of the crew there. Mother Nature has thrown us some race day curveballs the last couple of years, and we remain humbled by the volunteers and participants who continue to show up despite the deluge(s). Our community of sponsors is nothing short of spectacular – Bub’s Run simply would not be what it is today without the collective generosity of too many folks to list here.

Probably our biggest obstacle throughout the years has been in expanding the reach of Kelson’s Curtains. I made our very first curtain in 2018 to block out the aggressive fluorescent light pouring through the giant window in the door of his first room on the Aflac cancer floor at Scottish Rite. Fast forward to the following spring when Emma Sue and I stitched up a few more curtains to donate to other families on the Aflac floor who were facing the same plight…they were an instant hit. We agreed to make more, as the hospital staff had received many requests for them, and before long, we’d set up a Facebook page, recruited volunteers (Kelson’s Mema remains the most prolific curtain stitcher to date) and were making them like hotcakes! And naturally, they needed a proper name…that’s when Kelson’s Curtains was born. Over the years, we’ve made and donated hundreds of Kelson’s Curtains – which are made of dark (but bright and fun!) flannel with a magnetic border along the top so they can hang on the metal window frame, and which are washable for repeat use by families who – like us and most families on the Aflac unit – are frequent fliers. We have extended offers to other hospitals throughout Georgia, Florida and other areas, to provide Kelson’s Curtains for their patient families, but the answer has always been the same. Thank you, but no thank you. I’ve never understood why, and I’ve never been able to secure an answer from any of those who declined to receive them, and admittedly, with the growth of Bub’s Run, I’ve not made the time to expand our reach. But we would love to find other hospitals in the area (or elsewhere) where we could share Kelson’s Curtains…and Kelson’s story.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
As I’ve shared, our family established Added Strength in honor and memory of Kelson, both to keep his memory alive and well, and to provide support to organizations that enriched his life through the years. We decided on “Added Strength” because it is literally what Kelson’s name means; per Merriam Webster, a keelson is a ‘longitudinal structure running above and fastened to the keel of a ship in order to stiffen and strengthen its framework’ – in short, to provide additional strength. We had no idea when we decided on his name that Kelson’s life would be chock-full of medical and developmental challenges, or the incredible strength he would possess in enduring them. It felt – and still feels – like the perfect way to honor him.

The heart of Added Strength is decidedly Bub’s Run, a fully inclusive 5K and 1 mile fun run & walk typically held the first weekend in May, always benefitting an organization that somehow impacted Kelson’s life. From the beginning, it was our intention to give back in this way and we are proud to have raised over $200K for some incredible organizations. In 2022, Bub’s Run raised $40,230 for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a beautiful organization providing remembrance portraits to families facing the loss of a child; NILMDTS offered their time to our family in 2012 when Kelson was given an especially bleak prognosis and we were told he would not likely survive until his first birthday…definitely not his second. The 2023 beneficiary of Bub’s Run was the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where Kelson was so lovingly cared for throughout the last two years of his life; we were thrilled to present them a check in the amount of $47,430. CURE Childhood Cancer was our 2024 beneficiary and received a donation in the amount of $59,250, and in 2025, Pediatric Hospice & Palliative Care of Georgia, led by Kelson’s extraordinary hospice nurse, Lanise, was the beneficiary of an astounding $72,715 donation from the 5th Annual Bub’s Run!

In our second year, our family approached Emma Sue’s school, North Cobb Christian School, about a potential partnership; Head of School, Todd Clingman, was on board from the beginning and said they would be honored to help remember Kelson in any way possible, but he encouraged me to think bigger. So I did. In 2022 and each year since, inspired by our friends Brent & Kyle Pease and the Imagine Ministry at NorthStar Church, and with many thanks to our continued partnership with Speed for Need who share their awesome racing chairs, we have welcomed athletes of all abilities to Bub’s Run, offering volunteer “Bub’s Buddies” to provide assistance for our “Chair Captains” to experience the joy of crossing the finish line!! In 2025, we welcomed 26 Buddies and 8 Chair Captains…we can’t wait to see what 2026 brings! In line with raising our voices for inclusion, in 2023, we first welcomed the fabulous Joyristas of Java Joy to Bub’s Run and their smiling faces have been a welcome addition – rain or shine – to race morning each year since!

We strive to weave Kelson into every piece of Bub’s Run – our cheerful logo was inspired by his BFF, a singing bumblebee named Bumbles, and it can’t help but bring a smile to your face! Our sponsorship levels are all named for Kelson – instead of traditional titles such as “presenting” or “platinum”, our levels include “Smile” (he never spoke a word, but his smile said it all), “Giggle” (I wish we could have bottled up the sound of his laughter to keep forever), “Side-Eye” (the boy could throw a side-eye like you’ve never witnessed), “KDL” (his initials) and “Friends of Bub” (any amount donated is recognized…our favorites are the $5 piggy bank donations from his youngest friends). We develop our race day playlist around “Kelson songs” that we continue to compile through the years. Kelson was a *bit* selective about his preferred toys and such…as a nod to him, we work hard to pack our participant swag/goodie bags with only the best stuff – snacks & sweets, local coupons, wearable goodies like ball caps and (Goodr!!) sunglasses, lip balm, fidget toys, and always a special gift from our family…stuff we’re confident he would have approved! We revel in the opportunity to share his story with every new face that joins our Bub’s Run family.

As a family, we all play an integral part in making Bub’s Run come to life each year and we hope when he looks down on what his legacy has built, and what it has meant for so many people, he’s proud of us.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Honestly, when we were “starting out”, we had no idea where we were headed…we just wanted to do something that would honor and remember Kelson’s life. In my wildest dreams, I never could have imagined Bub’s Run becoming what it has become!

So to that end, I would say, if it’s on your heart, just do it. When we were first starting out, we were cautioned that most 5Ks “don’t make it”…that they are a dime a dozen and it was going to be difficult to gain traction in an already saturated market, so to speak. We didn’t expect to start out with a field of 500 runners…in fact, we had no real expectations, because again, our biggest objective was remembering our boy and we hoped others would echo that sentiment. And they have. Bub’s Run has grown significantly each year and that growth has been pretty organic – folks ask about our cute t-shirts, past participants invite friends, and I’m not scared to ask anyone for anything…sponsor, donate, volunteer, ride, push, walk or run! What’s the worst that can happen, right? I’ve found that if the passion is in your heart, no matter the challenge or how tall the task, it’s the easiest thing you’ll ever do.

Pricing:

• Bub’s Run Sponsorships range from $2500-$250
• Race registration will open in February; 5K – $30 (early bird), 1 mile – $20 (early bird)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://addedstrength.org/ | https://addedstrength.org/get-involved/bubs-run/
• Instagram: @bubsrun
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bubsrun

Image Credits
Victoria Inman Photography Jennifer G Mills Photography Genna Rinkenberger Photography