Run-a-thon to add to scholarship fund
Juniors at West Greene High School will be up bright and early today, hoping to earn scholarship money in memory of a fellow student.
Starting at 8 a.m., they will run and walk the track at the West Greene football field and continue until 1 p.m. The public is invited to join in to run or walk as many laps as they’d like in memory of Max Cunningham, a student who died of brain cancer in 2015.
During the run-a-thon, former FFA student Garrett Ross will roast whole chickens, available for purchase at $10 each. Spectators and participants will also be able to purchase purple T-shirts ($10) with the words Team Max and a dragonfly, the image of the fight against the type of cancer that claimed Max’s life. The back of the shirt will list the names of local businesses who’ve become event sponsors.
“We’ll have a bucket on hand at the run-a-thon for people who may want to donate to the scholarship fund,” said Eric Bedilion, West Greene teacher and sponsor for the Class of 2020.
Last March, Bedilion sat down with the 2020 class officers and students to test the interest in holding the run-a-thon. Class president Ben Jackson, a good friend of Max’s; Amber Finch, secretary; Gavin Scott, vice president; Sheyann Watson, treasurer; and Deshaylah Bissett, another of Max’s friends, unanimously agreed to stage the event.
In March, the run-a-thon had been put on hold because organizers didn’t want to compete with the Relay for Life, scheduled for around the same time.
Deciding to hold the fundraiser at the end of October, organizers gave the students from Max’s class pledge sheets two weeks ago to solicit contributions from the community.
Donors were able to contribute a flat amount or pledge to contribute a certain dollar amount for each lap the student ran or walked. Between 15 and 20 students, roughly half of Max’s class, have decided to participate in the event.
The seed money for the scholarship fund came about as a result of a Go Fund Me page posted to raise money for Max’s visit to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. His class knew they were going to go to the popular destination in their senior year in 2020, and when they realized Max was so terminally ill he wouldn’t be around to join them, they started the fundraising campaign.
In a month, the Go Fund Me effort raised $14,000 – enough to send Max, his mother, Bonnie Sue Jordan, his brother, Dallas, and his aunt, Gale Jordan, to Orlando. When Max died shortly after his visit, the remainder of the money jump-started the scholarship fund. Since then, additional fundraising efforts have grown the fund to more than $5,000.
“If the scholarship fund grows to $10,000 by 2020, we may split the money to create two scholarships of $5,000 each instead of just one,” Bedilion said.
Bedilion posted additional Go Fund Me pages each year two weeks before the anniversary of Max’s death and has organized additional fundraisers at school. Sometime soon, he plans to sit down with Max’s mother and a panel of members of the community to set the scholarship requirements and interview prospective student recipients.
“We want to make sure that every student graduating in 2020 has the opportunity to apply, although we haven’t yet decided on what the requirements might be,” he said.
In the future, the school will stage additional fundraisers for the scholarship fund. In the meantime, those wanting to contribute can send donations to West Greene School District, postmarked to the attention of Eric Bedilion.