The 6th Annual Walt Kyle Mile took place last weekend, adding a new event to its itinerary and accumulating more than $3,000 of donations for the Beacon House.
On Saturday, Sept. 7, walkers and runners went to the Berry Events Center parking lot to run in the Walt Kyle Mile, an annual charity event that focuses on donating money to the Beacon House of Marquette. According to their website, the Beacon House is a “privately run non-profit organization that works with the medical care community to ensure patient access to care.”
Walt Kyle, the NMU hockey team head coach and two-time survivor of cancer, said the event is an important one to the Beacon House and it is an accomplishment to add a new segment named after Kristen O’Halloran, who passed away in 2008.
“I think it is great,” Kyle said. “Mary Tavernini [Beacon House director of development] has done a great job in combining this event with a new run. We’ve named the Dash after a girl who was a big Northern hockey fan. This really has a great chance to really take off. The turnout is way more than last year. It is at least double.”
The charity run registration began at 8 a.m. and ended at 8:30 a.m., where participants could meet and greet with other NMU sports teams, including the Division I hockey team. The run and the dash started at 9 a.m. following an introduction to participants from River Valley Bank, the Beacon House, Kyle and Marsha O’Halloran, mother of Kristen O’Halloran.
According to River Valley Bank’s website for the 2013 Walt Kyle Mile, the event has tallied $1,470 in registered participants’ donations, along with a $1,500 donation from the O’Halloran family presented to Kyle in the opening ceremony.
Tavernini said the turnout for the Walt Kyle Mile this year was unprecedented and a welcome sight for future efforts for the Beacon House.
“This is just overwhelming to see so many people come to help people that will never be able to thank them,” Tavernini said. “There have been over 150,000 guest nights with people in every different kind of situation.”
Cost for registration for walkers in the event was $10 while registration for runners was $15. Sponsors for the event included Subway, River Valley Bank, Dash Foundation, Marquette County Title Company, Peninsula Medical Center, Vango’s, Advanced Center for Orthopedics, Togo’s, Border Grill, 100.3 Eagle Radio, Superior Timing, Fellow Flowers, OBGYN & Associates, EconoFoods, Psynergy Fitness, and doctors Ilmana Fulger and Jeffrey Carr.
Volunteer firefighters also worked the intersections along the route of the Walt Kyle Mile.
NMU President David Haynes said the charity drive put on by the Walt Kyle Mile for the Beacon House has always been a boon for the Marquette community, as well as for the university.
““[Beacon House] is an amazing community asset and a neighbor of our campus,” Haynes said. “Without them, this community would be at a loss. Walt Kyle is about compassion and empathy. He is also, as his team knows, about focus and hard work. That is what Beacon House is about and that’s what I think makes this community such a great community.”
For more information about donating for the Walt Kyle Mile or for information about the event itself, visit the registration website at https://secure.qgiv.com/hobnob/event/19096.
