By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
If there’s one thing Bucyrus Redmen know, it’s that you are never too young or too old to walk for a cause.
For the first time, the Redmen for the Cure Walk was opened to students district-wide and held at the Bucyrus High School track Thursday.
“We wanted to make it district-wide this year,” said third grade teacher Derek French, who began the Redmen for the Cure Walk as a community service project for his class four years ago.
“It’s been a great day so far,” French said. “We’ve combined it with our Field Day also so our Elementary kids are spending half the day with Field Day and half the day with the Komen walk. The Secondary students have just been coming out as their teachers bring them out. We’ve had a full track since about 8:45 this morning.”
The Redmen for the Cure walk, which had originally been held at the Elementary over the past three years, has raised over $9,600, including roughly $4,300 last year alone. The event was opened to the entire Bucyrus Elementary School in 2013 before becoming a district-wide event this year. The funds benefit the Susan G. Koman Foundation.
“We’ve had a couple of teachers diagnosed with breast cancer so it’s a little more special this year,” French added.
Bucyrus High School students took part in the walk for the first time this year. Senior Taylor Bryant, who was walking with a group of friends, said she was doing it to help stop cancer.
“We’re walking out here to help cancer, raise awareness for it,” Junior Jacob Irwin added.
Bryant and Irwin, along with their friends Cindy and Cassie Voss, Kylie Nickler, Alex Sprague, and Selena Snodgrass, all agreed that it was a great idea to do the walk, especially when it raises awareness for people they know.
“It’s like a bit of respect to the people that’s had it,” said Sprague.
Photos from the Redmen for the Cure Walk can be found on Crawford County Now’s Photo page.