Strawberry feet, forever.
Now’s the time to start thinking about lacing up your athletic shoes and recalibrating the stopwatch setting on your phone.
That’s because the Mohigans Strawberry 5K Run and Walk is lapping back around next month.
The event annually raises money for academic programs at Morgantown High School, through the school’s MHS Foundation. It’s a tie-in with the foundation’s yearly strawberry sale, a signature fundraiser.
Participants will hit their marks Aug. 12 on the Caperton Trail at the Wharf District.
Start and finish is at the back of the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place.
How you negotiate the course, organizers said, is up to you.
The day opens with the 5K timed race with awards on an out-and-back along the rail-trails. The 5K fun run/walk follows, using the same course. The timed race will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the fun run/walk at 10:15 a.m.
Entry fees for both are the same: $20 in advance and $25 on race day, organizers said.
The top 10 runners will receive special medals and the top male and female age-group finishers in the timed race will receive certificates.
Visit https://runsignup.com/Race/WV/Morgantown/MohigansAnnual5K or https://www.facebook.com/Mohigans5K to register or donate online.
There, you’ll learn more about all those sponsors who are helping support the event, said Earl Straight, a retired MHS teacher who currently serves as foundation president.
Dollars, he said, put the steam in the foundation’s stride.
“At Morgantown High School, we’ve always received great community and alumni support,” he said.
He likes that the event is now also officially sanctioned on the running circuit here.
“With this being our fifth race, we are excited to be part of the Morgantown Area Grand Prix this season” he said.
“We’re looking forward to another successful event that supports our great high school.”
By feat or feet, graduates who go forth with marquee success aren’t shy about acknowledging their high school alma mater, Straight said.
Past grads include university presidents, stars of Hollywood and Broadway, medical researchers and ranking officers and others who distinguished themselves in the military.
Among the latter was Tom Bennett, a 1967 MHS graduate who served as a combat medic in Vietnam.
Bennett enlisted as a conscientious objector at the height of the war.
He died while rescuing several of his wounded platoon mates during an ambush and was recognized posthumously for his battlefield bravery with the Medal of Honor.
This past spring, the foundation paid for the reprinting of “Peaceful Patriot,” a well-received biography of Bennett written by a WVU classmate in 1980 — which is now being taught in Jennifer Secreto’s English honors classes at Morgantown High.
Other monies from the foundation go for the purchase of supplemental teaching materials, faculty development and engagement fees for guest lecturers who present at the school.
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