Wednesday, April 17, 2002
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Wednesday, April 17, 2002 |
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Fun run to remember special student A fun loving student from Huddleston Elementary who died last year of childhood leukemia is being remembered in a special way on the anniversary of his death. The school's PTO has organized an adult 5K and a Children's Fun Run to take place this Saturday in honor of Alex Suddeth, who would have been in the third grade this year. Alex's mother, Stephanie Suddeth, a teacher at Huddleston and an avid runner, says the run is helping her to deal with her son's loss because she knows that the community has not forgotten him. "When I see so many people willing to give their time and money to make this event a success, it makes me feel that he is being remembered," said Suddeth. "I also think that seeing people work so hard together to accomplish something positive for our community makes me feel that something good can come from something bad." All proceeds raised from the run will benefit the PTO with a portion being used to purchase books for Alex's Corner, an area in Huddleston's media center that was dedicated to Alex last year. When the PTO approached Suddeth about the idea of having a fun run for her son, she requested that all money raised by the event be given to the school rather than to the Leukemia Society. She says she made the request because she and her family have received a lot of support from people in the Peachtree City community during Alex's illness and she wanted to give back to them in some way. "I wanted the people who were coming out to remember Alex to be the ones to benefit from the proceeds," she said. "We really had no idea how much money we would raise, if any, so I wasn't really looking at this from the standpoint of it being a huge fundraiser. The PTO was willing to put on the event whether it made them any money or not which made me feel really good and cared about." Although Suddeth requested that the money stay at the school, she says she feels that raising funds for leukemia research is important so she does it through other events such as Team In Training and Light the Night, both of which are very active in Peachtree City. As teachers, students and the community at large come together to honor Alex, Suddeth wants them to know how important Huddleston Elementary was to her son and how much they touched his life and the lives of her family. "All Alex ever wanted to do was be a regular kid. Coming to school as much as he could made him feel that way. Even when he couldn't walk and had to come to school in a wheelchair, he still wanted to come to school," she said. "Teachers in the school would always bring him games and movies or toys for the hospital and organized themselves so that we had dinner cooked for our family every night for almost four months. I appreciate so much everything that everyone did for us. Now, I just want to do something for them." One of the featured entertainers for the run will be Mickle the Pickle, a character created by Atlanta actor Michael Goldstein. Goldstein is a motivational children's entertainer and humorist who works with medically or otherwise fragile children. He used to entertain Alex at Egleston when he was a patient there and he also came to Alex's funeral and sang. "Alex was the craziest, silliest kid in the whole world," said Goldstein, who thinks a fun run is the perfect way to remember Alex. "You just had to chase after him; even when he was sick, he just had so much energy. Alex reminds me of myself because he was so nutty." Other entertainment will feature a DJ, a big slide donated by the Fun Company and a moonwalk donated by Shenanigan's. In addition, the Girl Scouts will do face painting. The run will take place at Huddleston. The fun run begins at 8 a.m. and the 5K at 8:30 a.m. Registration and check in (for those pre-registered) will begin at 7:30 a.m. People will be able to register on the day of the race. The late registration fee will be $18 for the 5K and $10 for the fun run. Anyone needing additional information about the run can contact Huddleston at 770-631-3255.
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