More than $100,000 raised to fight cancer
By Marc Lunde
mlunde@postbulletin.com
LEWISTON — Gary Mills founded the Fools Five in 1979 in honor of his former babysitter, Kim Huhnerkoch who died of leukemia at 16.
The inaugural race had 222 people and raised $2,232 for cancer research. In 2006, the Fools Five cracked the million dollar mark for total money raised.
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The race is on its way to surpassing $2 million, having raised $100,474 in 2007 and more than $97,000 this year, with an additional $13,800 raised for the local cancer support group in Lewiston.
Most who ran or donated money this year had a reason.
Carter Schlink of Spring Valley, just 30 months old, was diagnosed with a Wilms’ Tutor, or kidney cancer 10 months ago.
"We had a benefit for him in September but were looking for another way to spend time with (Carter)," Carter’s mother Holly said.
Bob Grant, Carter’s grandfather, has been participating since the second Fools Five in 1980. His mother, brother-in-law and sister-in-law have died of cancer, while his mother-in-law has fought off cancer three times.
Having the family tie to the race, they felt it would be great to get a large number of family members to participate in the event.
It worked.
Nineteen members of the family came out on Sunday to run or walk for the cause. The family wore matching T-shirts saying "Team Carter Remission: Accomplished."
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Christine Jaques had three grandparents who died of cancer and a mother who survived the disease six months ago. Although she was racing for them, she had her own disease to fight.
In June of 2006, the Lewiston native was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The former high school track star decided running was going to be her cure.
"It was either take a lot of shots and medication or try to treat it holistically," Jaques said. "I took the latter. (Running) is a hard thing to start back into. My health was my motivation."
Terri Ketchum of Lewiston participated in the Fools Five before, but now she her own reason: She is currently going through radiation therapy for breast cancer.
"(I ran) because it is a good thing; (it) raised money and raised awareness in people," she said.
The top individual money raiser was Odean Goss, raising $6,016.
The men’s winners were Pete Gilman, 33, of Rochester who did the 8K in 25:59, and Sam Minner, 16, of Winona won the mile run in 5:10. Women’s winners were Rachel Rich, 28, of Buffalo, Wis., with a time of 29:50 in the 8K and Sidnay Daley, 14, of Lewiston with a 6:58 mark in the mile. It was Rich’s second consecutive race title.
Page C5:Race results
