When it came time to start planning this year’s Run for Peace, Cathy Grimes and her team were faced with a dilemma: completely reimagine the event in light of new covid-19 restrictions, or call it off.
“Cancelling didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” said Grimes, who for 15 years has worked with PC’s Development Office to organize the community 5K that honors her late brother, Peter K. Ortale OPC ’83, and Kenny Caldwell OPC ’89, both victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“These days we’re all more isolated than usual, and giving people an opportunity to come together and be part of something bigger than themselves felt important.”
It was Grimes who suggested a virtual race as a safe alternative: Runners could set their own course
wherever they are in the world and connect with others taking part in the event through social media. Elsie Caldwell, Kenny’s mother, and the co-planners at PC liked the idea, and Grimes was able to mine experience she gained developing a virtual 5K at her workplace in May 2020.
A Run for Peace webpage on penncharter.com served as a hub for the event, with instructions for the day, links to PC social media feeds, and a gallery of messages from friends and former teachers remembering Caldwell and Ortale. To help foster a sense of community across the digital divide, the planning team sent out Run for Peace neck gaiters and encouraged runners to pose for photos wearing them.
On the morning of Saturday, Sept. 12, the @PennCharterOPC Twitter and Instagram accounts kicked off a roughly 24-hour race period with a photo slideshow, narrated by Grimes, welcoming everyone to the event.
“Today, just like in the days after 9/11," she said in the voiceover, “we're reminded of what matters most: family, friends, health and home. These are our greatest sources of strength.”
So how did this year’s online iteration hold up?
“We basically went from ‘almost cancelled’ to ‘overwhelming success,’” said Chris Rahill OPC ’99, director of alumni relations and leadership giving. Registration surged to an all-time high of 215 as runners reported in from across the United States and internationally from Italy, England and Japan. The event raised more than $17,000 for two scholarship funds created in memory of Caldwell and Ortale, a significant achievement even by the standards of previous years.
After that enthusiastic response, Rahill expects the run will always maintain a virtual component going forward. “It opened the door for a much bigger network of friends and family to get involved, which was awesome.”
To Elsie Caldwell, the global showing of support was “a beautiful way to honor the memory of Peter and Kenny and all the victims of 9/11,” even though she missed having the opportunity to spend a Saturday morning with her “extended family at Penn Charter.” In a typical year, Caldwell would be handing out water bottles at the finish line or walking part of the racecourse with her friend Jack Rogers Hon. 1689, PC’s chief development officer. The Caldwells showed up strong for 2020's virtual run, represented by Elsie’s son Leon OPC ’87 and a cluster of nieces, nephews and grandchildren.
With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, Caldwell, like Grimes, is pleased to see that the run has become a time-tested PC tradition. And when it’s safe to gather again at the starting line on School House Lane—while simultaneously welcoming a mass of virtual supporters—she suspects the Run for Peace will be “elevated to a whole new level.”
View more photos of the event on Flickr.