South Fulton Mayor Carmalitha Gumbs handed rapper Gunna, legally known as Sergio Giavanni Kitchens, an official city proclamation during the Wunna Run Club 5K on the Atlanta Beltline's Westside to Southside Trail on September 13, 2026. The event drew roughly 1,600 runners, joggers, and walkers and capped years of the artist's charitable work in the South Fulton community he calls home. It also came with a twist on tradition: all finishers received medals, while the top three participants additionally received chains.
A Hometown 5K With a Purpose
The proclamation, presented during the Wunna Run Club 5K on September 13, recognized Gunna for his resilience and his ongoing community work, according to CBS News Atlanta. The station reported that the race, dubbed the Wunna Run Club 5K, launched along the Atlanta Beltline and drew a large turnout of participants who came out to support Gunna's nonprofit, Gunna's Great Giveaway, which serves South Fulton families. Proceeds from the run funneled directly into that foundation's work.
This wasn't the city's first formal salute to the rapper. South Fulton first proclaimed September 16 as “Gunna Day” back in 2021 under then-Mayor William “Bill” Edwards, a designation that, per Revolt TV, cited his music achievements and youth mentorship in his hometown area. This year's 5K landed just three days ahead of that annual date, reinforcing the sense that the city's recognition of Gunna has become a recurring, multi-year relationship rather than a one-time gesture.
Race Day Logistics and Local Partnerships
The 2026 Atlanta race started at the Lee & White mixed-use development along the Westside Beltline and was co-organized with the local Atlanta Run Club, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's report on the event. The same report noted that Gunna developed the Wunna Run Club after adopting a personal daily running routine of one to three miles, a habit he began to focus on his physical and mental health following his 2022 release from custody. His inaugural 5K took place in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
That release followed a stretch of nearly seven months Gunna spent in Fulton County Jail in 2022 under a 56-count YSL RICO indictment, before he secured his release that December through a negotiated Alford plea that maintained his innocence, the same account explains. He never testified in the YSL trial. Hoodline has previously reported on the legal proceedings tied to the case, including how the trial was later halted after a stabbing involving another defendant in Young Thug's YSL case.
A Track Record of Giving Back in South Fulton
Gunna's philanthropic footprint in South Fulton predates his fitness pivot by years. Back in September 2021, he opened the “Drip Closet” and a free Goodr Grocery Store inside his former middle school, Ronald E. McNair Middle School, to supply students and families with free food, clothing, shoes, and toiletries, according to Rolling Out's coverage at the time. The store was part of that effort to serve the community.
Gunna's philanthropic work has also included other community initiatives. Gunna's Great Giveaway has served 1,000 children and families.
Gunna has also used his music career to bankroll the same causes. During his 16-city Bittersweet Tour in 2024, he teamed up with Live Nation and the Black Music Action Coalition to donate $1 from every ticket sold directly to his nonprofit foundation, according to Dilemaradio's coverage of the tour, which wrapped with a hometown show at Atlanta's State Farm Arena. Hoodline previously covered the tour's 2024 announcement, and more recently reported on Gunna headlining the FAMU homecoming concert alongside fellow Atlanta artists Summer Walker and T.I.
