Vermont PANDAS & PANS Awareness 5K Run/Walk 2026 — Burlington, VT

Join us on Saturday, October 10 for the 3rd Annual Vermont PANS/PANDAS 5K Run + Walk —a joyful, family-friendly morning on the Burlington waterfront bringing our community together around kids and families affected by PANS/PANDAS. Race it. Walk it. Bring your kids. Build a team. Come as you are. Whether you’re chasing a PR or taking a walk with friends, you belong here. Expect a live DJ, race shirts, finisher medals, snacks, prizes and lots of community energy, all while helping raise awareness and support for an illness too many families still struggle to have recognized. Saturday, October 10, 2026 · 10:00 AM Burlington Surf Club · 50 Lakeside Ave SIGN UP NOW Look what this community can do. Last year, more than 200 people came together to run, walk and rally around families affected by PANS/PANDAS. Together we raised more than $14,000. This year, we want to make the circle even bigger. Every registration helps build awareness. Every person who shows up helps another family feel less alone. Why we run. PANS and PANDAS can cause the sudden onset of severe behavioral, neurological and psychiatric symptoms in children following infection or another immune trigger. For families, the change can be devastating, and recognition, diagnosis and appropriate treatment can be incredibly difficult to find. These illnesses are still far too poorly understood. We run to change all that. We run so more parents recognize the signs. So more teachers and healthcare providers know the symptoms. So children get help sooner. And so families navigating PANS/PANDAS know there is a community standing beside them. Your participation makes a difference. Net proceeds from the Vermont PANS/PANDAS 5K support the Neuroimmune Psychiatric Disorder Clinic at Dartmouth Health through our partnership with The Alex Manfull Fund , helping advance care, education and understanding of post-infectious neuroimmune disorders. A note from Gaskell family Welcome to the PANDAS/PANS 5K! We are a family of 5 living in Burlington looking to transform the hardship of our own PANDAS journey into a beacon of hope and progress for others. In September 2022, at age 8, our son experienced a sudden, acute onset of extreme neuropsychiatric symptoms. As his parents, we sought help from doctors, psychiatrists, and local resources but to no avail; his condition continued to spiral. Thanks to one of our son's former teachers, who witnessed our struggle and had read about PANDAS on Facebook, we got a first glimpse of what could be happening. In June 2023, a clinic at Dartmouth Hospital diagnosed our son with PANDAS. Since then, treatment and recovery have been long and arduous, however finding the right doctors, care and support have made all the difference, including the support of our community. The intense hardships of our journey have made something clear: we want to help others living with this devastating condition.