<ro>Mark’s Run at Landon
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What: A 5K race and 1-mile Family Fun Run plus food, music and more on the Landon School campus in memory of Mark Vaughn Ferris Class of ‘94, who died from complications associated with juvenile diabetes.
When: Sunday, April 15, at 9 a.m. (sign up at 8:20 a.m.)
Where: The Landon School, 6101 Wilson Lane, Bethesda.
Registration: The entry fee is $20 for the 5K race and $10 for the fun run.
Find out more: Visit www.marksrun.org or e-mail marksrun@landon.net for more information, to register, to sponsor a runner, to make a donation, to become a race sponsor, or to see photos from last year’s Mark’s Run.
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Coddy Johnson began his career at the Landon School a year below Mark Ferris, but when Ferris was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in the sixth grade, he missed a year and the two boys became classmates.
They also became teammates, bandmates, roommates and friends.
When Ferris died in December 1999 from a heart attack stemming from his diabetes, Johnson and nearly everyone in the Landon class of ‘94 flew back for the funeral. Ferris had a way of bringing people together.
TWO YEARS LATER, Johnson and others from the Class of 1994 started Mark’s Run, an annual 5K race and walk at the school to raise money for diabetes research and for a scholarship fund in Ferris’ memory.
They wanted it to be an event that had all the same characteristics as their friend: low-key, good-natured, something that brought people together.
In five years, the run raised more than $600,000, with the money divided between the scholarship and the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard University. The 2007 Mark’s Run takes place April 15 at the school, and is open to everyone.
Joslin is a world leader in diabetes research and could well cure diabetes within current patients’ lifetimes. At the same time, it has helped increase life expectancy for people with diabetes — which impairs their ability to process glucose in the blood — and curbed the incidence of life-threatening complications like the heart attack that killed Ferris.
At the same time, the memorial scholarship is a way that people can benefit from the run immediately.
Until two years ago, the run was a part of Landon’s annual Azalea Festival, but volunteers were burning out from the effort of having the events together. Organizers moved the run to Landon’s Alumni Weekend, hoping to draw in more alumni runners and more participants from the community at large.
In addition to the 5K run and 1-mile fun run and walk, the event features music and food, cash prizes and other prizes donated by corporate sponsors and a festive awards ceremony.
<1b>— Ken Millstone