ROTC holds charity race for baby
At 9 a.m. Saturday a shot was fired, and more than 200 runners, walkers and stroller pushers began to race at the ROTC’s fifth-annual 5K and 10K Braveheart charity race.
“I say it was a good turnout,” said David Addington, a mechanical and aerospace engineering freshman and the winner of the 10-kilometer race. “We had over 200 people sign up, and the weather’s beautiful, and I’m looking forward to it next year.”
Created five years ago by the ROTC’s aerospace studies department as a way to give back to the community, the Braveheart race is organized solely by Air Force cadets, said Joann Wade, the business manager for aerospace studies.
“It’s just very, very organized. Takes about 70 people to pull it off, all student based,” Wade said. “I help out only because I’m centrally located, so I just do the money account, and I do the scheduling and that’s it. The cadets do everything else.”
Each student had their own job, Wade said, from being in charge of registration to being the on-site EMT to even the hydration specialist who made sure everyone had easy access to water.
“The Braveheart race is all about just helping families in the community that don’t have money or that have a child in need,” said Kirk Dial, a senior in civil engineering, “to be able to actually get the opportunity to help subsidize some of those costs because it is expensive.”
Every year the cadets choose one family to donate all the proceeds from the race, and this year they chose Jadee Bundy, a baby girl who was born prematurely with heart and lung anomalies.
Her parents said Jadee was born a month early and has already undergone one heart surgery. She has other heart anomalies that will need surgery soon, as well as a diminished trachea that will need reconstructive surgery. She was also born with duodenal atresia, a condition where the intestine is blocked off from the stomach. This had to be surgically fixed days after her birth.
“It was humbling,” said Charlee Bundy, Jadee’s mother. “It’s humbling to be the center of a charity race, but it’s also a very big honor, I think, and very touching that they would do it.”
Family, friends, students and supportive community members gathered for this year’s race to donate their time and money to help Jadee’s family pay for the surgeries.
More than $3,000 was raised from the entry fees and raffle ticket purchases, said Mike Emery, a senior in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and the race coordinator.
“When you sign up, everything that you pay for that doesn’t go towards overhead, it just goes directly to our cause every time,” Emery said. “So you know that when you sign up, you really are getting the most bang for your buck, I guess, as far as charity goes.”
Emery said for an admission fee of $15, a racer would get a spot in the race, free food, a T-shirt and a raffle ticket for prizes.
Extra raffle tickets were available to buy, and prizes came from donations from businesses all over the valley including Jimmy John’s, Noodles & Company, Buffalo Wild Wings and more.
Over the years, the Air Force cadets have chosen a number of different causes to support through each race, Wade said. The idea to start a charity race came from a desire to give back to the community. The cadets found their first cause in the form of their comrade’s newborn son who needed a heart transplant.
In the past, the cadets have chosen to help other children in need of support, including a child with severe autism and a child with Klinefelter syndrome. Last year, they chose a child with hearing deficiencies from the Sound Beginnings program at Utah State University to help buy specialized equipment that will help him learn how to read, write and speak, Wade said.
“There is a process. Usually what we do is we go out and talk to people and kind of find out situations and get a couple of individuals who are in need and then based off of that,” Dial said. “It sucks, but we have to pick one, so we usually just kind of figure out some kind of process to choose one.”
Wade stressed the importance of holding an event to get the community to come out and be involved instead of just having an online donation account.
“I think it’s really easy for people in the world to just click a button and donate money,” Wade said, “but to give your time, I think that’s something that’s becoming a thing of the past, and I love that our students are learning about giving their time to help somebody, not just money.”
Runners had the option of running in the 5K or the 10K race, and there was a 1-mile fun run for children.
The course started west of the TSC, circled around Old Main and the Quad, then led to 1200 North and back down Aggie Boulevard. Runners for the 5K did two laps, and the 10K runners did four.
“Watch out for it next year,” Emery said. “We always have posters just up on campus. We’ll be trying to get your attention.”
— miranda.lorenc@gmail.com