First-place team, The Tennessee Valley Elite, l-r: Joey Franklin, Chase Prater, Jake Guthrie, Tucker Adkison and Jackson Tucker
CULLMAN – The fourth annual Nicholas Fillinger Memorial Run was held Saturday morning on the campus of St. Bernard Preparatory School. Many friends, family and community members gathered at the school to honor Nicholas’s memory in the best way possible, by running. Nicholas died tragically in a training accident in Sept. 2013. St. Bernard was one of his favorite places to run.
The run benefits the Nicholas Fillinger Foundation as well as the Grace Chapel Choir, which is a youth community service choir of which Nicholas was a member. The run as well as partnerships are estimated to bring in $17,000 for the foundation, according to Julie Fillinger, Nicholas’s mom. The Nicholas Fillinger Foundation ministers to orphans and children rescued from human trafficking. This year's proceeds will help fund a trip to Peru to minister to children in the "Not Forgotten" orphanage. The foundation will be sending the Grace Chapel Choir to Peru on June 3. In addition to musical performances, they will be serving in various inner-city missions and helping with community service projects. The foundation also ministers locally by educating young athletes about safe and healthy training techniques, and provides a scholarship to a graduating senior of Cullman high School.
Julie Fillinger shared her thoughts on the outpouring of community support, both for her son and Curt Wilson, the Cullman High School sophomore who died last Sunday following an automobile crash, “The community support that we have received has always been phenomenal… it hits close to home with Curt Wilson dying; even though we didn’t know them that well, we know what their family is going through, and our hearts cry out to them. We see the outpouring of support, just like with us, and it energizes us to keep coming out.”
Saturday’s team winners were:
- Team Alliecat, 5th
- Team Dioko, 4t,
- Team Has Beens, 3rd
- Dean's Dream Team,2nd
- Tennessee Valley Elite, 1st
The Top 10 individuals were:
- Chase Prater
- Tucker Adkison
- Jackson Tucker
- Joey Franklin
- Blaise Carie
- Trent Dean
- Blake Terry
- Preston Kade White
- Adam Mangum
- Will Thompson
For more information, additional photos and complete race results, see www.facebook.com/nicholasfillingermemorialrun.
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