Calli Korbey, a former Hopkinton High School basketball standout who now coaches the Hopkinton Middle School girls team, is set to attempt her first Boston Marathon as a fundraiser for the town’s Veterans Celebration Committee.

A butterfly and a turkey wouldn’t seem to have much in common, but together they will provide inspiration to Calli Korbey when the 25-year-old Hopkinton resident runs the Boston Marathon on April 20.

“Something that on all my big moments I carry with me is an iron-on patch of a butterfly and a turkey, in memory of my grandmother and my mom,” said Korbey, noting, for example, that she wore it on her graduation gowns. “I like to keep them close to me, celebrating me and motivating me.”

Korbey explained that her grandmother Charlotte Marquedant, who passed away in 2012, loved butterflies and had butterfly bushes in her yard. “When I saw butterflies, it would make me think of her,” she said.

Meanwhile, her mother, Mary, a standout basketball player who returned to her hometown of Hopkinton after playing at UMass and became a beloved youth sports coach as well as a real estate agent, would refer to Calli and her older sister, Mikala, as turkeys “when we were being goofy,” Calli recalled. The term stuck with her as one of many positive memories of her mother, who succumbed to cancer 2015 while Calli was in high school.

“It reminds us to slow down and remember all the good things she taught us,” Korbey said, adding: “My mom has been in my head all the time. Something she would always say to me is to believe in myself and that I am capable of so much more than I think I am capable of. When I’ve had some long, hard runs, I’ve heard that voice, and it’s really special.”

That belief is being put to the test this month, as Korbey attempts her first marathon as a fundraiser for the town’s Veterans Celebration Committee (gofund.me/414f4ea64).

Korbey has some experience running, as she was on the cross country team at Hopkinton Middle School and Hopkinton High School — although it was primarily to stay in shape for basketball, which she went on to play collegiately at Worcester State University.

Now an adjustment counselor for the Shrewsbury Public Schools who recently obtained her social work license, Korbey — who also serves as the Hopkinton Middle School girls basketball coach — has long held thoughts about taking on the marathon challenge.

“Living just down the street from the starting line, we went to the start every year and I always thought it was the coolest thing,” she recalled. “In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to do it someday.

“Since graduating from college and not playing a sport anymore, I was looking to work toward something like that again. It felt like the next thing to add to my list.”

Calli Korbey stands alongside her mother, Mary, at the Hopkinton High School track after participating in the Hopkinton Mini-Marathon event in the early 2000s.

While she has hit the roads occasionally since college, Korbey never ran consistently until she started her training this past December. She searched online for a training plan, “picked it, and have gone pretty much solo the whole time.”

The rough winter made things challenging — “I couldn’t catch a break with the weather,” she said — but Korbey continued to head outside for her training runs, saying she found running on a treadmill “too painful.” She has, however, cross-trained by riding on a stationary bike.

Squeezing in runs “super early or super late” to avoid conflicts with her work schedule, Korbey plugged away, quickly realizing how much of a commitment it is to train for a marathon.

“It’s been going well,” she summed up. “I got advice from other people, but I totally underestimated the amount of time this would take every day to train. But it’s been so cool to see what I was able to accomplish.”

Noting that she is running “just to finish — no set time,” Korbey has kept her runs local. She’s not concerned about testing the Newton hills or other sections of the route in advance.

“I’ve gone as far as Ashland, but I figured any direction in Hopkinton gives me enough hills to train,” she said. “I was not planning on [running other parts of the course]. I prefer to just wing it and not scare myself too much. It will give me something new and different on the day of the race.”

Her sister ran a few years ago — which marked the first time Korbey made the trip into Boston to see the finish — and offered some tips that have proved valuable.

“She said to practice hills and practice eating and fueling during your run, so I’ve been experimenting with some different stuff because that’s all so new to me,” Korbey said.

For inspiration, Korbey typically relies on music and introspection.

“I need to be listening to something,” she said. “And I would say a lot of the time is thinking about family and why I put myself in these situations, why I challenge myself like this. Thinking about messages, positive affirmations that have been told to me. It’s me vs. me. This is really hard, but it’s rewarding. One step at a time and it will work out.”

Her father, Mike, is impressed with her dedication to her latest endeavor.

“When Calli told me last year that she was planning to train for the marathon, my first reaction was ‘Are you crazy?’ ” Mike shared. “But I’ve learned over the years that I should never doubt her. When she puts her mind to something, no matter how difficult, it will happen. We are all so proud of how hard she has worked to be ready for this and can’t wait to cheer her on.”

On race day, Korbey will have the support of friends and family — including her father, sister and brother, Cooper — to make the day extra special.

“My family is planning at least one stop in the middle of the course and then to meet me at the end,” she said. “It will be awesome to see them in the middle and then see me cross the finish line.”