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Community Corner

Giving Back Race is a Gift to Palos Heights For Previous Generosity

Race organizer tries to pay back community after it rallied around her family in the 1980s.

 

When the second annual Giving Back 5K Race kicks off in late August in Palos Heights, the plan is for a 72-year-old man in a wheelchair to be present.

Many of the local runners and walkers will know John Follenweider and the ordeals that he has gone through. Most of the non-local runners probably won’t know who he is. But he is the inspiration behind this race, in which proceeds will benefit area food pantries.

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Anne Doyle, the youngest of Follenweider’s eight children, said she was about “four or five” when her father suffered a brain aneurysm in 1981. She said Follenweider was a well-known and popular figure in town as he was a former youth football and baseball coach.

The generosity of her friends and neighbors in town is something that sticks with her today.

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“The members of the community would always come by and ask if we needed help,” she said. “They always had a lot of well-wishes for my dad. Now we have a chance to give back to a community – a great community. This is a chance for us to help people who are having hard times right now. It’s a very small, close-knit community and we all kind of know each other.”

Doyle said she ran in other charity events and came up with the idea to host an event to help her community.

So she helped form this race, which begins at 8 a.m., Aug. 18 and starts and ends in the Palmer Park area on 73rd Ave. The course takes runners through streets including Harold Avenue., 125th  Street and 74th Avenue.

Last year’s event raised more than $3,000.

“I was very happy with the turnout,” said Doyle, a Sandburg graduate who works in accounting and human resources for  a construction sales company in McCook. “We’re hoping for more runners this year but I’m thinking this weather might be too hot for some people. I’m still hoping for the best.’’

Last year, 113 athletes finished the race and the ages ranged from 6 to 70.

Orland Park’s Jeffrey Noell, then 26, won the inaugural race in 20 minutes, 19.9 seconds to beat out Lockport’s Bradley Anderson, who finished in 22:14.9. The top female finisher was Oak Forest’s Erin Frank, also 26, who ran the course in 23:25.5.

The cost per runner is $25 and to register, visit https://www.signmeup.com/site/online-event-registration/81950

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