.5K Downtown Event Cancelled for 2020, Looks Ahead to 2021

By Jeremy Coumbes on April 7, 2020 at 6:22pm

Residents looking forward to a short run or walk for charity will now have to wait a year.

The Jacksonville Kiwanis Club’s annual .5k Walk, Skip, Run or Roll for Charity has been canceled for this year.

The event was originally scheduled for this past Saturday, April the 4th, but had bee postponed following the closure of bars and restaurants in the state in March to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Bruce Surratt who organizes the event, says it was a hard decision to make, but the Kiwanis members felt it was the right decision for multiple reasons.

We figure there is going to be so much stuff going on that people are going to try to get in that they have to do, and the other thing is I don’t really feel like my sponsors, a lot of them being bars and restaurants, should have to put up their $200.00 sponsorship at this time. So it’s just not a good time to do it.

We will do it again next year and I’m sure it will be bigger and better. It will on April 3rd of 2021, which is still a Saturday. Big Brothers and Big Sisters will still be the recipient, and we will still start at Bahann’s and finish at Don’s.

This year would have been the 10th anniversary of the event, which has contributed over $53,000 to local charities over the last nine years.