Supporting a Great Cause in Pike County

On April 29, par­tic­i­pants hit the pave­ment for a good cause for the third annu­al Pike Coun­ty Crazy 8 5K Run/​Walk in Pitts­field. As a result of the event, $3,452.13 was raised on behalf of the Quin­cy Med­ical Group Health­care Foun­da­tion to ben­e­fit the Pike­land Snack Packs pro­gram. The sup­ple­men­tary food pro­gram pro­vides bags of snacks and light meals for stu­dents over the week­end when stu­dents don’t have access to school meals.

Dean­na Rine­hart, Pres­i­dent of Board of Direc­tors of Pike­land Snack Packs, said the funds will almost dou­ble the amount of stu­dents they are able to serve this upcom­ing school year. ​“We are blessed to have had this sup­port from the com­mu­ni­ty, busi­ness­es, and friends,” Rine­hart said. ​“Their sup­port allows us to assist fam­i­lies strug­gling to pro­vide food for their chil­dren.” Future plans for the pro­gram include expan­sion to all grade lev­els, and Rine­hart said sup­port from the Crazy 8 race puts them one step clos­er to that goal.

In the past, pro­ceeds from the event have ben­e­fit­ted Lowry Park in Pitts­field with a pur­chase of fit­ness equip­ment and the devel­op­ment of a com­mu­ni­ty bas­ket­ball court in Nebo. Bran­di Ruzich, QMG Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pist and Race Coor­di­na­tor, says the goal for the event is to ben­e­fit all of Pike Coun­ty. ​“This event is a great way to sup­port orga­ni­za­tions and pro­grams that make an impact on our com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers not just in Pitts­field, but through­out the coun­ty,” she said.

Look­ing ahead to next year, Ruzich said plans are already in motion for next year. ​“Each year when it’s over, we look ahead to the next year and see ho

w we can make it even big­ger and better.”

The suc­cess of the dona­tion comes from a com­bi­na­tion of reg­is­tra­tion fees, dona­tions and spon­sors. Spon­sors of this year’s race were Quin­cy Med­ical Group Health­care Foun­da­tion, Area Dis­pos­al, Casey’s Gen­er­al Store, CASS­COMM, Cen­tral State Bank, DOT Foods, Farmer’s Nation­al Bank of Grig­gsville, Green Acres Hotel, Illi­nois Rur­al Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Logan Agri-Ser­vice, Inc., MECO Engi­neer­ing, Pike Coun­ty Express, Speck­hart-White Den­tal, The Farm­ers Bank, Unit­ed Com­mu­ni­ty Bank, Inter­na­tion­al Eye-Care Cen­ter, Neal Tire and Auto, Cas­teels Col­or Wheel, Yogi Bear’s Jelly­stone Park at Pine Lake, and Auto-Own­ers Insur­ance. In-kind donors were Save-A-Lot, Coun­ty Mar­ket, CNB Bank & Trust, Flow­ers-N-More, Shear Envy, Mef­ford Chi­ro­prac­tic Cen­ter, Pike Coun­ty Lum­bar, Piz­za Hut, The Pick­et Fence, Lan­hum Chi­ro­prac­tic, and Dairy Ripple.