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NEWS BRIEFS
Ritter Park run honors memory of slain pastor
HUNTINGTON — Highlawn Presbyterian Church honored its slain pastor, Mark McCalla, Saturday morning with the first 5K Hike, Bike and Run Memorial.
Director of Christian Education Pam Curtis said the event combined McCalla’s love for the outdoors and the charities he felt strongly about. Proceeds were being distributed to Alzheimer’s research, Bluestone Camp and Conference Center, Little Victories, Boy Scouts and Highlawn Presbyterian Church youth.
“Mark loved the outdoors. He tried to spend time outside everyday,” Curtis said. “We wanted to do something that would share something Mark loved, which was biking, hiking and running.”
The event included a timed 5K run at 8:30 a.m., followed by the fun run, hike and bike at 9:30. Heath Damron, who ran in the timed event, knew McCalla for about four years. They met through Marshall University’s Whitewater Kayak Club.
“We did an overnight trip to the Gauley in his memory,” Damron said, pointing out that the first time he paddled the river was with McCalla that resulted in a three-mile paddle in the dark.
He and Curtis said Saturday’s event also helped people through the grieving process from McCalla’s death on June 19. He was found dead of a gunshot wound at the Beech Fork Wildlife Management Area, near the gun range he was shooting at.
“Personally, I know it helps me,” Damron said. “His loss will not pass with me for a long time.”
Curtis said that hosting the event would help people remember McCalla not for the tragedy of his death but for the way he lived life.
“It’s a slow (grieving) process, and we’re still in the beginning stages,” she said. “Just to be outdoors (Saturday) and share in an activity he enjoyed; instead of this being a sad event, it’s a happy event.”
