You can walk 100 laps, 10 laps, 1 lap or no laps at all at an Arkadelphia walkathon cancer fundraiser set for Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Presented by Georgia-Pacific, the second annual Walkathon will take place at Badger Stadium and is being billed as a community event similar to the traditional Relay for Life — without all the walking required.
Event organizer and founder of local nonprofit Soldiers of Service, Jason McCready has a goal of raising $20,000 for the American Cancer Society. With the support of the community and a handful of volunteers McCready, who also spearheads the annual Trash Wars event to combat littering in Arkadelphia, was able to raise $15,000 for the inaugural Walkathon.
From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. the community is invited to the free event, with a lineup of family-friendly activities that will not disappoint.
A $250 Walmart gift card will be raffled off for those who participate in a LifeShare blood drive. There will be presentations by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, as well as a DeGray Lake Resort State Park Ranger. A LifeNet helicopter is slated to land on the practice field.
Old Rose will be on hand to dole out temporary tattoos as a fundraiser.
There will be a weight-lifting contest, and a push-up contest for kids 12 and under. The Marine Corps will be hosting a pull-up challenge.
Mrs. Arkansas Virginia Laliberte and Miss Arkansas Teen Allie Bell are invited as special guests to the event.
Come lunch time, Third Street Baptist Church will supply something savory for those in attendance.
McCready likens the Walkathon to a successor of the Relay for Life, which lost steam during the Covid-19 pandemic; its last year was 2019. “We want to pick up the baton where Relay left off,” McCready said.
Soldiers of Service was formed in 2019 when McCready had the idea to give back to his community. It’s a volunteer-based organization: “We’re Christian patriots loving thy neighbor,” said McCready, a Marine Corps veteran who is a personal trainer at A-Town Fitness.