KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Tennessee School of Beauty has been a part of the community for the last 93 years; with a lot of their time going towards giving back. Adam Brown, the owner of TSB has seen the way his students interact with those throughout East Tennessee.

“My students are the best, I mean they do stuff for the homeless, we go to the cancer society and style wigs every week,” Adam said. “We like to give back.”

It hasn’t stopped there. The School of Beauty has recently found a new way to get involved with the community. The students ran toward the opportunity to help with the Knoxville Marathon.

“Just to be able to cheer people on, I think that’s a big thing that people need,” a student at TSB, Dakota Brown said.

The Tennessee School of Beauty is currently the largest volunteer group that was involved in the marathon, with over 50 people helping out for the second year in a row. It’s no coincidence either. In 2012, Adam found himself setting a goal to complete a marathon before turning 50.

“Everybody had said you’ll either do only one marathon or you’ll do a ton of marathons and after I did the first one, I said, ‘That’s it, I’m done, I checked the bucket list,’” Adam said.

However, it actually didn’t end there. Adam completed over 20 marathons in a four-year period. Running became a part of him, and soon the school. So much so, that each student that completes the school’s program receives their very own medal.

“As I got into marathons, I started realizing beauty school’s like a marathon,” Adam said. “It’s 1500 hours for our cosmetology program, which is about a year, and you have peaks and valleys,” he said. “So we actually started giving out, in addition to their diploma, marathon medals.”

It’s what has helped create a new tradition and a full-circle moment. From participating in marathons to now watching his students take part by giving back.

“In this industry particularly I think you can boost so much, you can boost people’s self-confidence, you can just make them have a feeling of purpose, so just being able to be a part of that and hopefully give somebody some kind of good in their life is just always so good for me,” Dakota said.

Providing good in others’ lives is exactly what Adam said those at the marathon needed, and he’s glad his students got to do so.

“When you’re out there for 36.1 or 26.2 miles, you know seeing these signs, you wouldn’t believe what that does for you,” he said. “I know what it means to the runners and I know what it means to me as a school owner to see my students helping out the community, I mean it’s a win-win situation.”

Find out the results of the marathon here.