Photo Credit of Chris Maher

The Cocoa Classic 5K, hosted by Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity, will take place on Sunday, Nov. 8 to honor late brother Collin Maher who passed away in May 2026. 

Collin Maher died by suicide on May 15, 2026, just days after finishing his first year at WashU. This year, to honor Collin Maher’s impact and the legacy of the race, the WashU chapter of AEPi has organized a Cocoa Classic 5K in St. Louis.

“Anybody who knows about him knows how many people were friends with him,” said AEPi Philanthropy Chairman and sophomore Gil Gordon. “So it was important for us to do something bigger to acknowledge what has happened and how we’re gonna move forward as a community to try and come together and deal with that loss. It means a lot to the frat to do something like this to honor one of our best friends.”

At 16 years old, Collin Maher founded the Cocoa Classic in his hometown of Atlanta. As a Boy Scout about to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, he needed to complete a service project that would benefit his community. 

“A lot of kids will do a bench or spread mulch,” Collin Maher’s dad, Chris Maher, said. “But Collin was always somebody who wanted [everything] to be big and make a big splash, and so he didn’t want to do … things that he felt weren’t as impactful as he wanted to make them.”

Inspiration first struck Collin Maher when volunteering at a local food pantry. He noticed that children would show up wearing shoes that were either beat up or looked like they didn’t fit well. And, Chris Maher said, that’s when the idea clicked. 

“With him being a runner, he was like, ‘Well, I’ll do a 5K,’” Chris Maher said. “And that’s a huge undertaking, especially for someone that age.”

Once Collin Maher settled on a 5K, he decided that the proceeds from the race would go towards purchasing shoes for a school whose students mainly came from low-income households. 

“During his first meeting with the school, he was like, ‘We don’t know how many shoes we’ll get, but we want to raise whatever we can,’” Chris Maher said. “And then the principal said, ‘No, you need to buy shoes for every child in the school. We can’t just give some kids shoes.’ So that made it a really big undertaking.” 

Collin Maher successfully gifted shoes to all 629 students at that elementary school. He continued to organize races and partner with the non-profit Shoes That Fit, a national organization that provides children with new, properly fitting shoes, to donate shoes to local students in need for years to come. By 2025, he had provided shoes for 1,600 children across Atlanta.  

Although the Cocoa Classic will continue to benefit Shoes That Fit, a cause that was incredibly important to Collin Maher, the proceeds from the upcoming 5K will primarily go toward mental health research funding and awareness.

The money raised will be used to further research in emotional dysregulation, which Collin Maher experienced, as well as train professionals in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). 

“Almost everybody with ADHD has something called emotional dysregulation, and those with emotional dysregulation feel things much greater than somebody without it,” Chris Maher said. “DBT is the therapy that helps people with emotional dysregulation. So that’s what we’re doing with the money is getting the word out and training. We’ve already started in Atlanta providing money to train counselors in high schools.” 

Rather than using previously mapped courses, Chris Maher drew up a 5K map that runs throughout WashU’s campus. 

“It’s going to start and end on Mudd Field,” said President of AEPi and sophomore Nathaniel Shalam. “It’s going to be all over campus and throughout the South 40 using a route set by Collin’s parents, which is supposedly a route he loved to run when he was doing track training.”

All people are encouraged to participate, regardless of running ability. The event’s aim is to be a fun event, reminiscent of Collin Maher’s original 5K in Atlanta.

“We have a couple hundred runners signed up and we’d love to get more. You don’t have to be a runner, you can be a walker,” Chris Maher said. “There’ll be a bunch of free cookies for runners and Poppi prebiotic soda. We’re trying to make it fun. … There’ll be plenty of hot chocolate for folks.”

Chris Maher illuminated the importance of this race, hoping that it raises awareness for mental health and encourages people to look after one another. He pushed the importance of fostering community within and around WashU, building support between others. 

“My goal is that people will walk away thinking about their friend’s well-being or somebody who may not look happy. It’s important to just reach out and have a conversation,” Chris Maher said. 

After the race, a memorial service will be held at 4:00 p.m. in Risa Commons, and all members of the community are invited to come together in honor of Collin Maher.

“The day will conclude with a really meaningful memorial service in Risa Commons, which will give students an opportunity to share their favorite memories with Collin Maher and hear from others about the moments they shared with him.” Shalam said. 

AEPi and Collin Maher’s family hope that the Cocoa Classic can remind people to look out for each other and to show those struggling that they are not alone. 

“For every one person, like Collin, there’s so many out there that have thought about suicide,” Chris Maher said. “We all need to come together. Everybody is going through stress, but knowing that you’re not alone, I think, is a really big deal.” 

To learn more about Collin Maher and the impact that he left, check out the Cocoa Classic’s website at https://runcocoaclassic.com. To register for the St. Louis 5K, head to https://runsignup.com/Race/MO/SaintLouis/CocoaClassicSTL.