Bri Becerra sits down with Dr. Jeff Roche, Professor of History, to talk about the Monday Night Mile, an annual fundraising event to benefit the Akron Children’s Hospital. The event, which takes place this year on Oct. 2, involves a number of different mile-long races in which students and members of the community can participate. Interested in signing up? Visit mondaynightmile.org or scan the QR code below.

How long has the Monday Night Mile been occuring?

We started the Monday Night Mile in 2018, so this is going to be our sixth year.

What inspired you to start the fundraiser?

When my son was seven and half years old, he was diagnosed with a pretty rare and very aggressive and unpredict- able form of kidney cancer. He went to Akron Children’s Hospital, where they had to figure out how to treat him. There were no protocols for what was going on with him, so we spent about five months in and out of Akron Children’s. They spent months creating and implementing a new set of protocols and proce- dures. We had been looking for a way to give back to the hospital for saving his life. He just graduated from the College last year. It took a long time to be able to confront what we went through. It leaves you very raw.

How did the Monday Night Mile begin?

Brian [the previous owner of Vertical Runner, now called Fleet Feet, in Wooster] said, “why don’t we have a race for the local running community?” And I said, “why don’t we race a mile?” He agreed to donate t-shirts, and we charged 15 dollars. We did it at the College track, but it had to be on a Mon- day night because it was the only time one of the teams wasn’t using it. So we said, “okay… Monday Night Mile.” That’s where we came up with the title. We raised $2000, and threw the event together in two weeks.

Did you mean for this event to keep going after the first one in 2018?

The next year, people kept asking when the event would happen again. They had a blast. It’s fun, it really is. Brian knew of another Children’s Champion [runners who fundraise on be- half of Akron Children’s] who was raising money to buy a special wheelchair so he could push his son, who was one of Akron Childrens’ Heroes, and he was going to be the first Children’s Champion pushing a Hero for the whole length of a marathon. So we threw the event for him, and we raised another $2000. That’s when we knew we kind of had something going for us.

Did you continue fundraising through COVID-19?

Since we’re a fundraiser for Akron Children’s Hospital, we had to follow all COVID proto- cols. So we created a virtual race that was held every Monday for a month, and it just kind of spread. We then became an official standalone fundraiser for Akron Children’s. The next year, we held the event both virtually and in-person. We got sponsors, and that year we donated $11,000. Then last year we donated $16,500. Over the last five years, we’ve donated $41,000 in total.

What motivates you to want to keep the Monday Night Mile going every year?

The other part of it besides giving back to Akron Children’s is that when we moved here twenty plus years ago, we didn’t know anybody. None of us are from here, and we moved to this little town without knowing anybody. We’d only been here six years when Christopher [my son] got sick, and this community rallied. Part of this is just a celebration of this place — it’s a way to bring all of these things together. It’s super energized and everybody has a good time. That’s what motivates me.

Do you see yourself continuing this for a long time in the future?

Yes. One of the most exciting things that we’re doing is working with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Fleet Feet and Moms Run This Town to do a mile in Columbus next year. We’re hop- ing to grow from there. Hopefully when I retire, this is something that I can do all the time.

What else would you like to share about the Monday Night Mile?

Last year was the first year that we tried to get students involved, so I think for the students that are around for fall break, I would love to see college relay teams going at it. The more young people we can get involved, the better. One of our biggest pushes this year is that we want to get more little kids out there as well.