One person might not be able to change the world, but she sure can try.

Former Bismarck resident Anne Mahlum started a running club for homeless people. She's in Bismarck this week talking at schools about her organization, Back on My Feet, and how she came to start it.

"Her story is one of great hope, inspiration, courage and determination," said Bismarck High School Principal Ken Erickson.

Mahlum spoke at BHS Wednesday afternoon. She graduated from BHS in 1999. She was recently inducted into the BHS Hall of Fame.

She wanted to talk to students about finding their purpose in life. When she started the running club with the homeless shelter in Philadelphia, she was contemplating a new job.

"Everybody always has an answer for us," she said, when a person tries to make an important decision.

She struggled with whether the new job would meet her purpose in life. The running club created a passion within her, that she likened to falling in love. She turned down the job.

She realized that her organization was helping people in the way she had hoped to help her father when she was a teenager. When she was 16, her father admitted to her family that he was a gambling addict. It broke her family apart. She coped with it by trying to excel at everything, and became controlling of her eating and body image. Then she discovered running as a way out.

"Running was the only thing for me that was not judgmental," she said.

She told the students at BHS to find something that they can do to share with other people. In this way, they can help change the world.

Mahlum will speak at the University of Mary today. Her talk begins at 11 a.m. in Butler Hall in the Tharaldson School of Business. Her talk is open to the public.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)