Middle school runner chooses kindness over competitiveness

Amelia Malburg, an eighth-grader at Mason County Eastern, was running in a meet when she noticed her teammate was on the ground and struggling.

Malburg said she generally is near the front of the pack when running, but on that particular day her ankle was hurting.

“We were almost close to done, we were getting up the big hill,” Malburg told UpNorthLive.com. “[My teammate] fell down, she didn’t want to move forward because it was so hot and has asthma.”

Malburg stopped running and picked up her teammate, seventh-grader Alexis Shubert.

A photo of Malburg helping her teammate was shared on Facebook by a parent from another school.

The picture shows Malburg holding up Shubert, whose arm is wrapped around her teammate as both girls walk up the hill.

“I just wanted to sit there and just lay down and just stop,” Malburg told UpNorthLive.com. “Then Amelia came by and she helped me up and walked me up the hill and we started running together.”

“By stopping to help Alexis, [Mia] was basically sacrificing her own time and performance to try and help a teammate which is a pretty cool thing,” Mason County Eastern Principal Mark Fornor said.

The principal says the photo demonstrates sportsmanship and putting generosity over finishing first.

“It was just something that I kind of expected Mia to do she doesn’t like it when other people are hurt around her,” said Ginger Malburg, Amelia’s mother. “Knowing that people are choosing kindness over competitiveness."