Gunna and Walmart Pledge $10,000 in FAMU Student Scholarships

Wunna Run Club began as an idea Gunna announced in August 2025, ahead of its first major 5K in Brooklyn. He hosted that race at Prospect Park on September 3. FAMU's account of the launch says more than 1,000 runners of varying skill levels took part. Organizer NYCRUNS handled registration, timing and the course, and the race hit its registration limit within hours of signup opening.

The club kept moving after Brooklyn. It held runs in Houston and Toronto, then reached Johannesburg, where Gunna hosted another 5K in January. The partnership with Walmart came after more than a year of Wunna Run events, which turned a personal fitness project into a staffed public event with real infrastructure behind it.

Gunna's Atlanta run this year was set to benefit Gunna's Great Giveaway, his nonprofit serving families in South Fulton. In a recent interview, the Atlanta-born chart-topping rapper explained what keeps him building the club. He said, "It was for a run, and it was all community." He added, "My vision is coming to life." He said the response pushed him to keep going because people had gathered for something beyond a concert.

He also talked about how running fits into his creative routine. He said his fitness work taught him to balance studio time with training, and that it has helped his stamina onstage. He often uses runs to listen to beats or songs he has just made. Time away from the studio also gives him room to think through changes before he returns to work.

Walmart's Regine Moore, director of Constituent Relations and Corporate Affairs, framed the sponsorship in FAMU's announcement. She said, "It's never been about just sponsoring a race," and that the company's goal is "showing up consistently for a community we genuinely value." Moore added that the partnership rests on the belief that "health should be accessible, wellness should be celebrated, and trusted relationships are created through action, not words." She said that returning for five years strengthens trust and reflects Walmart's investment in health outcomes and wellness access.

FAMU's Homecoming runs from October 18 through 25 under the theme "There's No Place Like the Hill," a nod to the film The Wiz. Homecoming Committee Chair Caitlin Smith, who is also Student Government Association vice president, said, "We wanted to create a week that brings generations of Rattlers together and gives everyone a reason to reconnect with the place we call home." Brandi Tatum-Fedrick, senior vice president for University Advancement, Strategic Partnerships and Innovation, said, "Together, we are moving FAMU forward, and together, we are FAMU forever." The Thursday night Homecoming Concert starts at 7 p.m. in the Lawson Center, with Belly Gang Kushington, Grammy winner T.I., Grammy nominees Summer Walker and Gunna on the bill.

FAMU was founded October 3, 1887, and is a public, historically Black university in Tallahassee. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. A homecoming run with scholarship money attached fits that legacy of community investment, and it puts students in health fields directly in the story.

For now, the public voices on the deal are Walmart, FAMU and Gunna himself. The next checkpoint is race day on October 22 at Bragg Memorial Stadium, and the registration cutoff needs to be confirmed before anyone plans to lace up.