Photos courtesy of Kim Hoser
In the warmth of late spring in central Ohio, hundreds of participants gather around Pickerington Central High School. Some students pass out snacks, water bottles and direct traffic, while others may be gearing up for the run with friends and neighbors, or getting ready to walk with parents and younger siblings. The whole Pickerington school community comes together to raise money for a child with a chronic illness at the iRun for Jonah 5K/1-Mile Family Walk.
“It’s very close to my heart,” says Kim Hoser, chairperson of the event, “and a way of honoring Jonah.”
Origins of the iRun
The namesake of the iRun for Jonah 5K is her son, Jonah Hoser, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and needed a heart transplant at the age of four.
“The last part of his journey, even though he did well for nine years, was that he ended up going into (organ transplant) rejection,” says Hoser.
Although Jonah was on the waiting list for another heart transplant, he never received one.
The fundraiser was originally the brainchild of several Pickerington Central High School teachers, who became aware of Jonah’s story and wanted to help out the family. And so when Hoser got a phone call that these teachers wanted to put on a 5K to raise money for Jonah’s medical bills, the Hosers were, naturally, overwhelmed.
Although Jonah passed on before the inaugural May 2010 race, his family was able to attend. Hoser, her husband, Russell, and their daughters, Rachel and Grace, decided to keep the race going, in honor of their son and brother.
Giving Back
For the past nine years, Hoser has been putting together the iRun for Jonah 5K in his memory. With the aid of Julie Brunner, a Pickerington Central guidance counselor and friend of Hoser’s, Stacy Tennenbaum, the central principal, along with volunteers, Hoser asks around the Pickerington community for a family in need, selects the year’s beneficiary, collects donations, organizes the race, sets up for the event, makes sure it runs smoothly, tears down afterwards, and provides the funds to the beneficiaries.
And those hundreds of people who gather every year? One of them is the beneficiary child.
“So not only do people come and race or walk,” Hoser says, “but they can see physically the person – the child – that we’re helping.”
All that work makes a real, visceral impact on the Pickerington community.
“It’s just one of those events where people can really feel like they make a difference,” Hoser says.
In particular, the parents of kids who have been helped by the race have come back to help in subsequent years. They volunteer to give back, in the same way Hoser has, and pay it forward, so to speak.
Rapid Growth
Organizing an event like the iRun for Jonah 5K can be a full-time job. And for Hoser, who already works as a postpartum and NICU nurse, the project has grown quickly.
“It’s pretty much on my shoulders to make this happen,” Hoser says, “and it’s going be a challenge to make it happen this year.”
Despite outsourcing some of the fundraising efforts and volunteer organization to the Columbus Running Company, a local company which specializes in organizing fundraiser races, the project has grown to a size that is perhaps too large for three people and a handful of volunteers.
But for Hoser, whose interest in the event is rooted in such a deeply emotional place, not organizing it is perhaps as difficult as organizing it.
“It’s made me think that maybe there’s something else we can do out there to keep honoring Jonah,” she says.
Hoser remains optimistic that there is a different, and perhaps more manageable, way to continue to honor her son’s legacy.
“I’m giving it to God,” she says. “[This race] impacts people, that they can actually see the child that they’re helping and surround them with love.”
Maddi Rasor is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.