Reid’s Race fundraiser expands to include food, music at Ceraland

Organizers of the Reid’s Race 5K annual fundraiser have taken a major step to expand the event that raises funds to fight sudden infant death syndrome.

The gathering that has consisted mostly of dashes for youngsters, an auction and a 5K for the past five years has now morphed into an all-day gathering today that now will include food trucks and concerts.

Founders and Columbus residents Megan and Kevin Bozell hope the bigger get-together will substantially add to the $60,000 total that has been raised for the New Jersey-based CJ First Candle organization for awareness and education about SIDS.

“Over the past couple of years, I have heard people say, ‘Oh, Megan, I want to be able to support you, but my kids have this or that going on during the day,” Megan Bozell said.

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So now the day will begin at with registration 2 p.m., with concerts beginning at 5 p.m. from pop-rock cover band Ferguson Road and 6:30 p.m. with a few members of the local vocal group Lei’gacy. The idea is to allow more people to participate in the cause by offering evening activities.

Megan Bozell, a fourth-grade teacher at Clifty Creek Elementary School, lost Reid, her 5-month-old firstborn son, to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2011. She also suffered a miscarriage in 2010. Since 2014, she has worked to help other families in similar circumstances through Reid’s Race and also via a child-loss support group she helped launch, Angels of Hope. It meets at 6 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 719 Fifth St., Columbus.

“It’s constantly growing,” she said.

Those efforts are especially significant since she mentioned that Bartholomew County ranks near the top of state statistics in infant mortality from 2013 to 2017, according to the Indiana Department of Health.

She prepares for the weekend event today on what would have been Reid’s 8th birthday. In the past, on what she calls Reid’s heavenly birthday — the day he died on Sept. 19 — some of her students have assembled small care packages of lip gloss and other personal items for her. “They’re so, so sweet,” she said.

A similar kindness exists among the entertainers booked for the gathering. Mike Wilson, guitarist and vocalist with the band Ferguson Road, is a longtime firefighting coworker at the Columbus Fire Department with Kevin Bozell. Other band members are Meliisa Rager and Jason Treesh.

“With the brotherhood that exists within a fire department, we’re essentially one large family,” Wilson said. “So, it wasn’t a hard decision at all to support this.”

Jerry Cox, one of the longtime singers with Lei’gacy, has been friends the Bozells for years through Cox’s sister, Marlene Huckaby.

“We’ve known them so well,” Cox said. “So we couldn’t possibly say no (to helping).”

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What: Annual Reid’s Race fundraiser to help the cause of research and education to fight Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

When: Race registrations begins at 2 p.m. today with races beginning at 3 p.m. and concerts beginning at 5 p.m. 

Where: Ceraland Park southeast of Columbus at 3989 S. County Road 525E.

Tickets: 5K Run, $30; 5K Walk, $30; 200-meter Kids Fun Run (6 and younger) $5; Half-Mile Kids Fun Run (7 to 10 year-olds) $5, available on the Facebook page for Reid’s Race.

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