ate University senior graphic design major, made her first trek to the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington in 2012. She returned to the reservation, located southeast of Seattle, the next spring break. 
She said the memory of her experience at the reservation never left her mind. 
“You go out there, and you don’t really expect it. There’s no way to prepare for it,” Sekkenes said. “They tell us that they’re poor, but you get out there and it’s completely different from whatever you could ever imagine.”
During both trips, Sekkenes was a member of the MSU Reformed University Fellowship team.
Sekkenes said she came up with the idea of a fundraiser for the reservation this summer. The product of her musing is RUF’s Trail of Hope 5K and Wolf Cove concert. 
The event is planned to raise support and promote awareness for Sacred Road Ministries, a church-planting ministry associated with the Presbyterian Church in America on the Yakama Reservation.
The Trail of Hope will start with registration at 5 p.m. Dec. 5 at the amphitheater on campus. The race will be at 6 p.m., and Wolf Cove, an MSU student band, will play after the race’s conclusion.
Race registration is $20 in advance and $25 on race day. A shirt is included in the registration packet. 
Anna Ballard, senior graphic design major, said she thinks it will be a fun event and atmosphere.
“Even for people who don’t know what Sacred Road is, I think we will still have participants because it’s a fun, Christmas-y run,” Ballard said. “The fact that it is benefiting Sacred Road is a bonus.”
Lauren Sensing, senior special education major, said she participates and helps to organize the race because it supports Sacred Road Ministries. She said she has had a long-time connection with Sacred Road and has worked with the ministry for about nine years.
“I hopped on board with her just because I’m all about raising awareness for Sacred Road,” Sensing said. “I want more people to come and see what Sacred Road is and what it is about and how the church is growing out there.”
Sensing said the event’s proceeds will go to Sacred Road’s mercy-ministry fund.
“It will help people who are in need of the money. It’s not going to our team. It’s going directly to the ministry,” Sensing said.
Sekkenes said she thinks Sacred Road Ministries helps the people on the Yakama reservation tremendously.
“To see the people out there in all their brokenness and to see how Sacred Road can contribute so much to their lives is what I thought was so awesome about it,” Sekkenes said. “It’s really such a broken place, but when the kids come to kid’s club and church and everything, it seems like their lives are perfect even though they are not.”
Other MSU students have traveled to the Yakama reservation to help Sacred Road Ministries and have seen the ministry’s impact.
Ballard said she went to the reservation her freshman year during spring break and plans to return.
“They (Sacred Road) pour their hearts into it, and you can really tell it is making a difference in the lives of the people there,” Ballard said.
The Trail of Hope 5K race registration is open to the public. To register, visit msstate.ruf.org. For more information about the Yakama Indian Reservation and Sacred Road Ministries, visit sacredroadministries.com.