On a perfect spring day that makes New Englanders giddy about the possibility of summer, 25,314 runners from 120 countries and all fifty states left the Boston Marathon starting line in Hopkinton, MA. On April 18, 2022, thirty au pairs from fourteen countries anxiously awaited the runners at well-stocked water and Gatorade stations at the top of Heartbreak Hill.
The volunteer group was comprised of au pairs from Cultural Care Au Pair who will spend their exchange year living with a host family in the United States as part of the BridgeUSA federal cultural exchange program. They came from home countries as far away as Colombia, Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, Australia, China, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, Slovenia, Argentina, Spain, and Estonia. And they came from their US host homes all across Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island. They arrived at the Marathon as strangers; they left as friends.