ROCKINGHAM — A local high school student isn’t letting the current social circumstances stop him from completing a project he started this spring.
Noah Aiken, a rising senior and active Beta Club member at Richmond Senior High School, organized the inaugural Kay Yow Family Fun Run and Walk a couple of months ago.
Originally set for Saturday, March 28, at Hinson Lake in Rockingham, he had to cancel the fundraising event due to COVID-19.
Now he’s making it more coronavirus and socially distancing friendly, holding a virtual walk instead.
“Due to COVID-19 we still cannot have our event,” Aiken said. “However, we are going to do a virtual walk. This means that we want participants to take a picture or video of them wearing their shirt and show their support for the Kay Yow Foundation.”
The virtual walk and fun run will now be held on Saturday, July 25. Participants who signed up for the original event were given light pink shirts emblazoned with the Kay Yow logo and “virtual fun walk 2020”. Aiken is asking them to wear it in their photo or video.
“We are planning to montage the pictures and videos into a video,” Aiken shared.
The Beta Club project was created to serve two purposes, the first to help raise money for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, a non-profit organization which was founded to fight all types of cancers impacting women. A total of $2,211 was raised by the Beta Club.
The Cancer Fund was founded to support former Hall of Fame North Carolina State University women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who publicly battled on-again, off-again breast cancer for 22 years.
The other part of the fundraiser was to help raise money for the Beta Club’s trip to the national convention, which was originally scheduled for last month in Fort Worth, Texas.
Richmond’s Beta Club qualified in the group talent category, taking first place at the state convention in February for their musical rendition of the hit movie Grease. But again, due to the pandemic, the national convention was canceled.
Had the event been held at Hinson Lake in March, runners and walkers would have made approximately two and a half laps around the lake to complete the four-kilometer race.
Helping Aiken organize the original event, along with making changes following its cancelation, was Beta Club adviser Suzanne Hudson.
“I would like to take this time to thank Mrs. Hudson,” Aiken said. “I want to thank her so much for all the help. This would totally have not been possible without her. I will always be grateful for her help.”
He added that he wanted to thank LuAnne Underhill for her “generosity and dedication” to the fundraiser, as well as Eric Thompson and Valley Auto World for sponsoring the t-shirts given out.
Aiken said photos and videos of walkers and runners wearing their shirts can be sent to him or Hudson. For questions, he can be contacted via Facebook.
