A Michigan high school cross country team used a 20-mile trail run to connect with cancer patients before finishing with a final mile run to the Susan P. Wheatlake Regional Cancer Center together where they’ll great more cancer patients and hand over donations they have been collecting.
As reported by Michigan NBC affiliate WPBN, the Marion (Mich.) High School cross country team divided a 20-mile course on the Pere Marquette Trail into segments that range in length from 3.5 miles to 8. Along each of those sections, the high school runners were joined by cancer patients, with the different groups eventually meeting up for the final mile run as a unified group.
“I can’t tell you how impressed I am that the team members developed this challenge,” Marion science teacher and track/cross country coach Jason Keeler told WPBN. “They talked it over among themselves and with one of the parents and decided the cancer center would be what they’d support.”
The team’s run serves as a full-team coda to the 2018 season, just days after the Michigan Upper Peninsula championships. That they chose to wrap up the season while raising money for cancer patients only reinforces the team’s commitment to each other and the community.