American Legion inaugural 5K Saturday

What hopes to be a new tradition, the Newton American Legion Post 111 is hosting an inaugural Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk. The event will start at 8 a.m Saturday at the Legion, 1101 W. Fourth St. S., and is open to the community as a way to bring families together in support of local veterans.

“One of the focuses of the American Legion is community involvement,” organizer Jenna Barge said. “I am an avid runner and sponsoring a run just seemed like a great idea.”

Barge said Memorial Day weekend was selected because it seemed honorable to run on the holiday in order to raise money for another of the organizations annual events, the Fourth of July lunch. Each year, the Legion serves a lunch for veterans and their families following the parade in Newton, and now the race will serve as a fundraiser to support the meal.

The 5K route will begin and end at the Legion with the loop heading south on Fourth Street before it joins the trail leading it to the Jasper County Museum. Once there, runner and walkers will continue north to the Casey’s General Store where they circle around the Newton entrance sign and retrace the path back to the Legion.

Participants will be receiving purple shirts for the event, a color that has special meaning to the legion.

“Every year the American Legion National Commander has the opportunity to chose a color which will represent the Legion for the year,” Barge said. “This year our commander chose the color purple. This is due to the fact that we, at the Legion, are a blended family. Our blended family only starts with members from every branch of the military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard), then we also have the Auxiliary, the Sons, the Riders, all of our families, and we wrap it all together with our community members.”

In addition to the Legion working on this event, the 5K received donated water from Fareway, DC Sports assisted in the design of the shirts and Forbes printed flyers and registration forms for the 5K. Barge also wants to thank Trinity for its support in making the event possible.

“Thanks to the American Legion Post 111 and E- Board members for allowing me the opportunity to make my vision a reality,” Barge said. “(It) turned out better than I could have imagined it.”

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com