Eighteen years for the children of St. Jude….
Hi everyone, it’s Brad. Normally Brian writes the intros to one of my stories, but this time he’s letting me have a go at it.
Long time Intrigued readers know that Jan participates in the ultimate community-based fund-raising effort in the country: The 45th annual St. Jude Memphis to Peoria Run (M2P) to raise money for the Kids of St. Jude. In case you didn’t know, Memphis, TN and Peoria, IL are 465 miles apart. Why would anyone voluntarily run that far during the hottest week of the summer? It’s all for the kids.
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN is the premiere children’s cancer research center in the world (my humble opinion). Danny Thomas (“Make Way for Daddy” fame) said that “no child should die in the dawn of life” and founded the hospital in 1962 in Memphis to treat, and now cure kids with cancer. Forty-five years ago, former Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy had “One Crazy Idea” to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis by hosting a running relay from Memphis to Peoria. In 1982, 21 runners completed the 465-mile journey raising $22,000.
Fast forward to 2026. This was Jan’s 18th year participating in the Memphis to Peoria (M2P) Run. Runners leave Memphis about 11am on Wednesday to the thunderous cheering of hundreds, possibly thousands, of St. Jude employees lining the roadway. Runners then run, 24×7 relay style, back to Peoria over the next four days and nights. Two teams of runners, Gold and Blue, tag-team for eight hours at a time all the way back to Peoria. Jan is on the Gold Team. When she’s not running, she’s also showering, eating, helping in a chase van, and driving a motorhome to the next stop for the team along the route. This means precious little sleep time. Because of her spectacular organizing skills, she is able to eek out a couple of hours of sleep (literally only two or three) each day over the four days. As Mike McCoy is fond of saying, “it’s a fund-raising event, not a running event,” but you’d never know it by the number of runners that participate.
The M2P Run ends at the Peoria Civic Center with not only the 180 runners from Peoria (including more than a few former St. Jude patients), there are 35 doctors and staff running from the St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and another 2,000 or more from 33 satellite runs all over Illinois converging on the Civic Center to start the fund-raising telethon. This year set fund-raising records again. Not only did the M2P smash its efforts from the prior year with a record $1.9 million, the entire telethon (all of the satellite Runs, golf outings, talent shows, corn boils, lemonade stands, etc.) raised over $12.6 million dollars for the Kids of St. Jude this year.
Since 1982, the combined efforts from M2P and all of the satellite runs has raised over $101 Million for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; much of it from right here in Central Illinois. That’s what I call long-term, unwavering committed communities. This is what a community’s heart looks like when banding together to support Hope for children and families seeking cures.
Now that this year’s M2P Run has completed, the motorhomes have been returned to their respective rental companies, the runners safely returning home, and the confetti cleaned up, Jan can rest. Well, at least until next year’s M2P prep starts. As you would guess, Jan’s more than a little tired. She puts on a brave face when she tries to convince me, “but it’s a good tired.” I’ve made the one-night, no running required, bus trip to Memphis many times. Heck no, I’m not a runner; just a huge cheerleader for her. But I know exactly why she continues to run for the Kids of St. Jude.
For now, Jan is resting and recovering. BTW, in a couple days I’m taking her on a fabulous vacation so she can rest and recover in style. Shhh! Don’t tell her it’s also part of another photo assignment.
Take it away Brad. (that sounds funny coming from me)…
During retirement, Jan and I have taken up various activities besides birding. Shhh, don’t tell Brian, he thinks we focus on birds 24×7. We hike with a friend Trish when our schedule allows. While on spring hikes at a Spring Creek Preserve (SCP), I like to listen to the birds to see what’s out there. I can by no means identify all of them by their call, but I can recognize a call when it’s new to me, or the area.
The last few springs, usually from May to late June I heard a bird call that rises in pitch and accelerates the higher the pitch. At first, it reminded me of a staccato slide whistle, stopping to hit all the notes all the way to the top of its range. This song definitely stands out from the chirps and chips and warbles we normally hear on our hikes.
SCP consists of three reclaimed farm fields that have been allowed to go back to nature. Each is full of young trees and grasses native to the Illinois prairie surrounded by mature woods tucked into the folds of the river bluff. There are also plenty of hiking trails through the woods for all ability levels. We seldom have to worry about water in the creek separating the fields, but when it runs, it runs full.
In the first of the hiking fields next to the parking lot, let’s call it Field A (that’s its real name anyway), I can usually hear an escalating song. As we walk along, I hear it again. But by the time we’ve reached the end of Field A, I can no longer hear it. Hiking the path around Fields B and C, I don’t hear the song at all. Turning around, and taking the fields in reverse alphabetical order, C to B to A, I begin to hear the song again once we near the end of Field A by the parking lot. Taking out my trusty bird listening app, Merlin, it identifies the singing bird. But when I go to enter it into eBird later, it tells me it’s very unlikely to hear that bird at that location. Ever. One app says it is, the other says it isn’t.
Talk about calling your [bird] shot, hit the jump to read more about this rather pretty rarity..so the experts say.
Continue reading Prairie Island…by Brad Marks
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