St. Charles charity race benefits Joplin

A St. Charles businessman who created medals for a race in Joplin, Mo., that was not held because of the May 22 tornado, instead helped organize a local run scheduled Saturday which will benefit the ravaged town.

Paul Aguilar, general manager of Running Awards, created medals for the June 11 Boomtown Run in Joplin. Because of the mass destruction from the storms, the race date became a cleanup date.

“If you ever witnessed tornado devastation it's pretty unbelievable,” said Aguilar, who was in Joplin June 11 to help with cleanup efforts. “The pictures don't tell the story.”

Saturday's benefit event, which will follow the training course of September's Fox Valley Marathon, was coordinated by Aguilar and Dave Sheble and Craig Bixler from the Fox Valley Marathon. In addition to the St. Charles run, Florida and New Hampshire had benefit runs last weekend and Michigan will have one June 26 for Joplin.

The Boomtown Benefit Run begins at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at Dick Pond Athletics, 303 N 2nd St. in St. Charles, and runners will receive the medals that were meant for the Joplin Boomtown Run. Saturday's run will follow the Fox River through St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia area, finishing at Dick Pond.

“We've all been scrambling in the past week but it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen in a big way,” said Sheble, who lives in St. Charles. “They decided to have 153 medals and runners to represent each victim that was lost in Joplin.”

Each runner's bib will have a name of someone who perished. All participants can run any distance up to a half marathon — the original distance for the Boomtown Run. Recommended donations of $50 but a minimum $25 is required and 100 percent of the donations will be given to United Way of Southwest Missouri.

As of Friday there were spots available to run Saturday. To sign up or for more information, go to fv26.com/boomtown/benefit.htm. Runners can also show up with a check on Saturday.