By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – It’s been 40 years since the first runners raised money for St. Jude by embarking on a near-500 mile trek from the Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis to Peoria as part of an annual telethon.
“They along the way questioned the wisdom of that,” Bloomington-Normal run co-chairman Dennis Cler quipped. “But they kept St. Jude kids in mind and decided they would do it next year and we’ll do it bigger and better and ever year it has gotten bigger and better.”
Runners from Bloomington-Normal will participate in the run for a 32nd consecutive year on Saturday.
The telethon on WEEK-TV raised $9.8 million in Central and Southern Illinois last year, including $2.75 from McLean County.
The telethon’s McLean County chairman James Ingold shied away from setting a $10 million goal, putting his focus not on money, but on results.
“The goal is 100 percent cure, whatever it takes,” Ingold told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin and Patti Penn.
The fundraiser that supports research and treatment of childhood cancer will include an Avanti’s dinner, silent auction and bake sale at Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center that begins at 5 p.m.
Bloomington-Normal is one of 36 satellite runs to Peoria.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
