Friday, September 18, 2015

Running for everything that is Middletown

By Brian Sumpter, Lake County Record-Bee


CALISTOGA >> If you had time to grab only one or two things from your house before fleeing in the face of a devastating firestorm, what would they be?
It’s not a hypothetical question if you are Diego Munoz of the Middletown High School cross country team. Munoz, who had to make exactly that decision on Saturday evening before evacuating his home in Hidden Valley Lake, one that may not be standing any longer, decided to take his cross country medals and a picture of him and his grandfather.
“That’s how much running means to him,” said Melanie Martinez of her son. “It (running) is one of the only things he has left. We don’t know if we still have a home.”
The Valley Fire, which devastated the communities of Hidden Valley Lake, Cobb and Middletown on Saturday night into Sunday, has scattered the Middletown High School sports community like leaves in a heavy wind. This coming Saturday, the cross country runners plan to do something about it. They will run in the Viking Invitational at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa. They won’t be running for personal or team glory. They will be running for each other, for their teammates now left homeless by a fire that has destroyed more than 600 homes, but most of all they will run for their communities, defying all the adversity, all the loss, all the suffering that has been piled on their young shoulders in less than a week’s time.
To read the rest of the article, go to this link:
http://www.record-bee.com/sports/20150917/running-for-everything-that-is-middletown

Also, preview article for the Viking Opener which will also have a donation booth for the victims of the recent fires.
Empire cross country season off and running with Viking Opener

5 comments:

Dan said...

People who don't run will probably never know what it means to those of us that do. So gratifying, but not at all surprising, to see the running community rally around this team to provide gear and support. Glad to see these kids are going to have some sense of normalcy by being able to get together with their teammates and do what they love to do.

Anonymous said...

Could someone set up a gofundme account for this runner or his granted to help rebuild?

Anonymous said...

Also note:

THE BRET HARTE CROSS COUNTRY INVITATIONAL SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO THE FACILITY BEING UTILIZED FOR THE BUTTE FIRE EFFORTS. INFORMATION REGARDING A RESCHEDULE DATE WILL FOLLOW SOON.

The communities around Angels Camp have also been hit hard by fire.

Anonymous said...

I heard of an account set up by Sonoma Academy that has over raised over $20,000. Anyone have the link?

Anonymous said...

https://www.gofundme.com/middletownhighSA

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