St. Paul of Caro raises money for mission work
By Stacey Tucker
Staff Writer
CARO — More than 30 runners and walkers gathered Thursday evening at Indianfields Township Park in Caro for a new 5K run/walk event with proceeds benefiting Lestage, Haiti.
St. Paul Lutheran Church of Caro hosted a Building The House of God fun run/walk where all money raised will go toward building a new sanctuary for the Lutheran Church of Lestage, Haiti, where members recently visited.
“We were there in February and a group of us decided we wanted to build a new sanctuary there,” said event coordinator Greg Arnette. “We want to get back whether it’s this February or a year from February.
“Depending on how much money we make.”
Thursday night’s event raised $745 for the return Haiti trip. Arnett said the fun run/walk was such a success they would like to make it an annual event.
“We had some competitive runners and we had others who just enjoyed the walk out at the park,” he said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The top runners at the event were Dan Mahan, who took first with a running time of 19:55, Ben Arnett who took second and Casey Hadaway who came in third.
Awards were given to the top three runners. Arnett said their youngest runner, five-year-old Dillan Barrigar, a kindergartner at Cass City Schools, will also be awarded.
Arnett said the young runner mentioned he would like a medal just like the older runners.
“So we’re going to make him a medal too,” he said.
The run/walk event began at the circle pavilion at Indianfields Park and wound around inside the park, up and down the trails. Roots were marked for safety and signs were posted to direct participants throughout the race.
St. Paul Lutheran in Caro officially “adopted” the Lutheran Church in Lestage, Haiti as its mission project in April 2013.