Jingle All The Way Run. 
Recipients of participation awards pictured from right to left: Tom Mountain, Dave Palmer, Brynelle Glover, Angelo Ligori, Julie De Meyer and Mark Childs. December 9, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Angelo Ligori). Jingle All The Way Run. Recipients of participation awards pictured from right to left: Tom Mountain, Dave Palmer, Brynelle Glover, Angelo Ligori, Julie De Meyer and Mark Childs. December 9, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Angelo Ligori).
Chatham

CK Runners Get Fit And Give Back In 2017

Chatham-Kent residents not only got in shape this year, but they also gave back to some important causes.

Angelo Ligori, who is the chairperson of the 2017 RunCK committee, says the 11th and final race of the year wrapped up this weekend. RunCK organizes a series of races every year to support healthy living and charitable organizations in the community.

The Jingle All The Way Run, which was hosted by the Defiance Running Club in Wallaceburg on Saturday, collected money and food donations for Goodwill.

Ligori says over 100 people came out to support the final run.

"The food donations were fantastic. The room was full of donations that everyone brought in and everyone was dressed like Santa and elves-- just extremely colourful. It went very well," says Ligori.

Ligori says the event's organizer Mark Childs is a community leader in Wallaceburg, who does a lot of charity work. According to Ligori, Childs will be taking over as the 2018 RunCK committee chairperson.

He says the RunCK series seems to be growing every year.

"Every year we've picked up one or two more. For 2018, Mark was looking at the schedule and we're getting competition now for dates and times. I'd say first year, we had seven and this year, we had 11. It's slowly grown," he says.

Ligori says hundreds of people come out to each race.

"With all the runners, I'd say we average 100-150 per race. I'd say throughout the year, between runner and walkers, we had close to 2,000 people that participated in all the races," says Ligori.

Ligori says the most amount of people came out to the Run for Mental Health in May, with over 500 participants.

He adds that the highest amount of money raised was at the United Way's Harvest Run, which collected nearly $20,000.

Greenfield Global representatives attended the last race on Saturday and donated $500 Sport Chek gift certificates to participants that ran in ten or more races. Ligori says Blackburn Radio's Dave Palmer, Tom Mountain, Julie De Meyer, and Judith Glover were the recipients of the awards.

For more information about RunCK, visit the municipality's website.

Read More Local Stories