Ridgerunners Raise Cash In Race Against Cancer Elementary Students Team Up For Event Usually Dominated By Adults

Most Friday mornings, the Wilson Elementary Ridgerunners can be found scurrying through Manito Park or along trails on the back side of the High Drive ridge.

The 16 kids chant a cadence like a troop in basic training:

“Mama, Mama, can’t you see?”

“Mr. McBride made a runner out of me.”

Today, the cross-country runners and teacher-trainer Jim McBride are running in the final hours of a 24-hour fund-raiser, slugging down cans of Mountain Dew and Jolt to stay awake.

The Relay for Life, winding up today at Spokane Falls Community College, traditionally has been adults only. Teams must raise at least $1,500 for the American Cancer Society.

Hospitals, insurance companies and cancer survivors typically enter, but not elementary schools.

Kids couldn’t do it, some people said.

The Ridgerunners now can laugh at the skeptics.

On Friday, with $2,500 raised, the Ridgerunners were the second biggest money-makers in the event. The final tally won’t be ready until next week.

The Ridgerunners raised their money in less than two months, much of it in nickels and pennies. Some adult teams spent a year raising less.

The entire school got involved. Students bought cupcakes for 50 cents. A first-grade classroom donated 44,000 pennies ($440) the class had won in a schoolwide drive.

Two kindergartners contributed $7 in nickels they made selling lemonade. Principal Bob Pedersen allowed the team to hold a car wash at the school.

Tyler Hurst, an 11-year-old Ridgerunner, likes being a cancer fighter. His grandmother, Aileen Hurst, died of lung cancer two years ago.

“My dad was really sad about that for a while,” he said.

Half the team of 16 children, ages 8 to 12, have family members who have battled the disease.

It’s a chance to “do payback” for them - and for McBride, who leads the Ridgerunners on their weekly four-mile runs.

McBride’s youngest child, Daniel, survived leukemia. Now 24 years old, Daniel was 10 when he was diagnosed. He endured a rough five-year program of chemotherapy and radiation to clear the cancer from his blood.

Toni Cooley, co-captain of the Radiators, a team from Sacred Heart Medical Center’s radiation oncology department, praised the Ridgerunners for showing adults how to raise money.

Cooley’s team is the top moneymaker so far, raising $4,008.

“Usually we don’t have the gumption to make this kind of commitment until we’re adults and know the good of it,” Cooley said. “Because cancer has come into these kids’ lives at some point in time, they really feel they can help.”

Relay for Life works like this: Teams raise money to enter, then spend 24 hours running and walking the outdoor track at Spokane Falls Community College. Each team must have at least one runner on the track at all times.

Twenty-nine teams are out there today winding down the final hours of the event, which ends at 6 tonight.

Team members take snooze breaks in sleeping bags and tents when it’s not their turn on the track. Local businesses provide food, prizes and entertainment.

There will be clowns today at 9 a.m., a magician at 11:30 and line dancing instruction at noon.

The cancer society raised $23,000 last year, and hopes for $40,000 this year.

Ridgerunner Kaley Hurst, 9, planned to take the 2 a.m. shift.

“My dad’s going to wake me up. I might sleep in the tent and if there isn’t room I’ll sleep in the car,” she said.

Ridgerunner mom Marietta Haffey got the team involved after seeing a poster at work. She’ll watch the youngest team member, her son Sean, 8, cross the finish line for the team today.

She isn’t worried about them losing sleep, even though four of the team members planned to leave at 6 a.m. today for a school field trip to Seattle.

“They’ve got plenty of energy. It was the energy of these kids that made the difference,” she said.

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