The Oct. 13 release of the last living Israeli hostages in Gaza brought joy and tears of relief as loved ones were reunited after more than two years apart. It also meant that groups such as Run for Their Lives can now take a step back from their Sunday morning advocacy.

Shany Klein, the founder of the national Run for Their Lives, announced that the global movement would stop its weekly meet-ups.

“There are no more living hostages whose lives we can run for, and as the war has ceased, times may again become uncertain and unsafe,” Klein wrote in an Oct. 13 Facebook post.

Organizers of local chapters across the world are now faced with a decision: whether to continue walking and running until every deceased hostage’s body is returned or seek closure by ending the weekly gatherings.

Jamie Beaulieu, an Arlington resident and organizer of the northern Virginia chapter of Run for Their Lives, said she feels the group has achieved its mission of raising awareness of the hostages.

“We ran for their lives and they came back alive,” Beaulieu said. She added that the NoVa chapter will no longer meet for walks, but will gather one final time to “celebrate the release of the living [hostages] and commemorate our nearly two years of walking and building community together.”

Abbey Frank, a Rockville resident, attended many walks with the Rockville chapter of Run for Their Lives with her elderly parents, starting in January 2024. “It was a very regular part of my Sunday routine for the past two years,” she said.

The last walk she attended was a “cautiously optimistic” gathering the day before all 20 remaining hostages were released. The Sunday afterward, Oct. 19, members of the Rockville chapter met at Cabin John Park to process the events of the past two years and discuss what to do moving forward.

“The consensus was that we were going to follow Run for Their Lives national and have closure on this advocacy and weekly walking and gathering,” Frank said. “But we still have our WhatsApp group, … so we’re going to use [that] as an opportunity to share other events that might be happening to advocate for the return of the [deceased hostages’] bodies.”

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, meanwhile, will hold weekly vigils on Sundays in Washington until the remaining bodies are returned to the bereaved families.