Family can often set the example and help shape someone’s understanding of being a good and moral person, and that was certainly the case for Madison resident Nicole Talmadge. She mentions her mother as a great inspiration, and someone who was selfless in her hometown.

“My mother was a huge volunteer in the town,” she says. “...She did all of these things in the community, and I just had this great role model as a child, and I think it is really important that my children see that in me as well.”

Nicole will be honored with a Beacon Award at a gala event on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The award recognizes outstanding individuals who selflessly step up to help fulfill the Shoreline community’s promise as a place of opportunity, well-being, and safety for all. For many years, Nicole has been a positive and philanthropic person in her community, including helping a childhood friend diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. While she was very supportive of her friend at the time of her diagnosis, Nicole decided to take it a step further, starting an organization called “OutRUN 38,” in reference to her friend’s life expectancy. Nicole started a Facebook group, telling people about her friend’s story, with over 1,000 people gathering to run for the cause.

“I decided that it would be awesome if we could run 3,800 miles collectively, which we finished by day two,” Nicole says. “We were contacted by The Today Show, and it became this national organization seemingly overnight.”

Nicole says that at the time that “OutRUN 38” was being recognized by national media, she didn’t really know what she was doing when it came to fundraising, she had just done it to support a cause that she was passionate about.

“I firmly understood that when you bring together people who are passionate for a cause, you’re not really fundraising,” Nicole says. “You’re connecting people with a similar passion who want to make an impact.”

The town of Madison has had a deep impact on Nicole as a person who is passionate about fundraising and giving back. She had previously been an educator at The Country School, where she wanted to help the students she was working with. It was through working there that she would end up finding her current job as an executive director for what was then the Children’s Education Opportunity Foundation, now called the CEO Foundation of Connecticut.

“I remember thinking it was time for me to find a group of students in education who really needed me,” she says. “[The job] was about impacting children across the state and providing them with equal access to education.”

She recalls a young girl named Shania, who she worked with back when she was an educator at a middle school in Middletown. Shania grew up in not the best home, and was afraid of the educational opportunities that she would miss out on. Nicole helped her to research independent schools, and Shania was able to attend a good high school and was accepted into college with a good scholarship. She is now working in a role that allows her to give back to students facing similar issues as she did, just as Nicole did for her.

“I kept reading the letter that they [the Children’s Education Opportunity Foundation] had sent me and thinking, this is my opportunity to help thousands of Shania’s,” she says. “I reached out to the founder and told him that this isn’t work I’ve done, but it’s work that I can do and that I am passionate about.”

Nicole talks about the work she is currently doing and the ways in which she and the organization are looking to give these kids the opportunity to seek out better schools and more opportunities.

“We award matching scholarships to kids from kindergarten to eighth grade,” she says. “...in order for them to attend schools that may be a better fit for them. We believe in helping as many kids as possible.”

Nicole is also a mother to four children and makes an effort to be involved in their schooling as well as other organizations surrounding the schools that they attend. She is also close to receiving her certification to become a yoga instructor and plans on incorporating yoga into her work with students, helping them to find better and healthier activities for their spare time.