Yesterday the entire CCC staff took a road trip to Waverly,
Iowa for the 6th Catch the Spirit 5k run/walk in memory of Megan
Koepke. Megan passed away when she was in seventh grade at Waverly-Shell Rock
Junior High after an eight and a half year battle with Histiocytosis. Megan’s
family, classmates, and school teachers and administrators began hosting the 5k
as a way to honor Megan and the strength she showed during her battle with
cancer.
This May Megan would have graduated high school with her
classmates. They chose to honor her by wearing purple Catch the Spirit t-shirts
designed by Megan’s close friends.
Rain and isolated storms were in the forecast, but as in
past years, about five minutes before the run began the clouds cleared and we
saw a little sunshine. Rhonda Koepke, Megan’s mom, said that she’s always
looking down on us.
As runners lined up on the starting line, Rhonda thanked
everyone for coming and released 12 balloons to signal the start, one balloon
for every year of Megan’s life. Then, for the first time, Rhonda walked the 5k
route.
Following the run everyone enjoyed pork sandwiches, potato
salad (the best ever according to Elly), and chocolate malts.
The past five events raised more than $19,500 for our
flagship program Camp Heart Connection. While the total for this year hasn’t
been announced, the event had a great turnout with lots of smiling faces
celebrating Megan’s life.
Each summer Megan’s fighting spirit is shared with current
Camp Heart Connection campers through “Queen Megan’s Bouncy Castle” a bounce
house donated by her family.
P.S. we were having such a good time that we didn’t even
remember to take our camera out of the van! This post will be updated when we
have some to share.
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