400+ runners cross the finish line at Hinchinbrooke PS

Oct 08, 2009

Photo: Atom boys gave it their all at the 9th annual Joe Goodfellow Memorial Race at HPS

On Oct. 5 over 400 students from 14 different north eastern schools in the LDSB participated in the Joe Goodfellow Memorial Race Region 3 Meet held at Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham.

It was Dan Kimmerer’s 9th year as organizer the event, which was named in memory of Joe Goodfellow, a former student at Hinchinbrooke Public School who was killed 9 years ago at the age of 19 in a tragic car accident.

For Dan the race symbolizes everything that Joe stood for, namely the love of athletics and doing the best that you can. Dan explained, “It’s great for the community to have role models and Joe was that kind of person who had a lot of character. I do this race for these kids and also for the memory of Joe.”

The atoms race was 1.85 km and the other two classes ran a 2.85 km course. There were 6 races in total, which included both male and female events in the atom (grades 3 & 4), bantam (grades 5 & 6) and midget (grades 7 & 8) classes.

Upon completing the race every single runner was congratulated at the finish line by Joe’s mom Cathy Goodfellow, who handed each participant a ribbon.

For Cathy every child’s effort deserves recognition at this event. “ I think it’s really important that their effort is acknowledged and everyone of them gets and deserves a pat on the back. It‘s a really difficult race.” She added, “And many thanks from our family to all of the volunteers who continue to work very hard to put this event on.”

The top 30 individual runners who placed in their races and the top three scoring schools will proceed to the Limestone District Championships, which will be held at Fort Henry Hill in Kingston on Oct. 13.

Congratulations to all of the runners who participated.