Patriot Partners to support The Bell Center at the Mercedes Marathon

Last year, 126 Homewood City Schools faculty and staff members ran the Mercedes Marathon. It was the largest participation in the school system’s history. Superintendent Bill Cleveland even ran both the half-marathon and a leg of the relay team event.

This year, more than staff will be involved.

Elementary, middle and high school runners have teamed up for the relay event to raise money for the Bell Center for Early Intervention programs. For this event, five participants complete a full 26.2-mile marathon together by splitting the distance: two 5Ks, two 10Ks and a 12K.

“The nature of running is that it is a community that always finds a cause,” Homewood High School cross-country coach Lars Porter said. “We have kept our eyes open to how running fits with what our heart is, and the Bell Center was an obvious fit for us.”

Each team is running for an individual child at the center, which provides special education, speech and physical therapy and other services to children up to age 3 who are at risk for developmental delay — all without receiving any outside funding.

Porter was looking for an opportunity for his high school runners to get involved in the community when he connected with the Bell Center.

In talking with Homewood Middle School coach Eric Swope, they brainstormed a way to blend their teams so both middle and high schoolers could join in the experience together. 

The idea caught fire from there.

“We were not trying to get together groups of five high schools boys that would win it,” Porter said. “We were trying to diversify.”

High schools found middle schoolers they knew, and they built their own teams.

The usual age minimum for the race is 12, but the organizers made an exception for fifth- graders since the program is raising money for the Bell Center.

As it turns out, the parent of a fifth-grade runner is also the chair of the BellRunners, a program started 19 years ago for marathon runners to raise money for the Bell Center. That mom, Jennifer Andress, has also run the relay the past seven years for the center.

Her son, John, is running with Cleveland on the  “Super Patriot Partners” team (named so because the superintendent is on it). Cleveland will also run.

Each team is charged with raising $2,620, or $100 for each mile they run, and Andress is helping them to do so.

“I know people are intimidated by raising money, but every dime raised goes back into the center for the kids,” Andress said.

Leading up to the event, the middle school and high school teams and adults are mostly training on their own but are getting together several times to train with the whole group.

They are also meeting to learn more about the Bell Center and share the mission of the center with the community.

 “It’s more than an insignificant impact,” Porter said. “It’s something that’s really going to make a difference. We are hoping to do it well and maybe encourage other school systems to put together teams in the future. If three or four [systems] would put together seven to eight teams, it could have a huge impact. It would only knit Homewood athletes together, but it also would connect them to other school systems and recognize that what we share goes beyond just running.”

A Patriot Partners Yard Sale will be held Saturday, Feb. 8 at 8 a.m. at The Bell Center. All funds raised will be split evenly among the Patriot Partners relay teams’ fundraising goals for The Bell Center. Royal Cup Coffee will be serving coffee and hot chocolate.