Sunny skies and warmer temperatures are expected to draw hundreds of people downtown on Saturday for the sixth annual Allie Cat Run and Festival.
Leslie Carruth and her husband, Bill, lost their 6-year-old daughter Allie in a tragic accident in the spring of 2017. Since then, they have created the Allie Cat Run & Festival to honor her memory.
“We thought we were just going to do this one year and that would be it, but it has turned into something amazing,” said Leslie Carruth. “People ask us when is it going to be; businesses have it in their budget for sponsorship.”
Besides the attendance crowds growing each year, so has the money raised.
“In total in five years, we have raised over $300,000,” Carruth said, something she and her husband never imagined. They along with their son, William, spend a lot of time preparing for the annual event.
This year’s festival will kick off Saturday with the Allie Cat 5K Run, a 5K walk and a kids Fun Run. The run and walk will begin at 9 a.m. in front of City Hall.
“It is the same route to keep it kind of easy,” Carruth said. “Runners will go first, and then the walkers will follow.”
Once the runners and walkers finish, the kids Fun Run will take place in a loop around City Hall, she said.
Race awards are scheduled to be presented after the Fun Run beginning around 11 a.m.
Participants can pre-register for the race at time2run.net through Wednesday night or onsite on Saturday until around 8:15 a.m. The cost is $25. Those who pre-register will receive an Allie Cat T-shirt while supplies last.
After the race, festival goers will have an array of activities on the City Hall lawn to keep them busy, including arts and crafts booths, a petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, bounce houses and other inflatables.
Food vendors will be available. Live music is scheduled to be presented by My Savior’s Story after the race, followed by Dan Confait at noon, Daniel House at 1:15 p.m. and Southern Drive at 2:30 p.m. Activities will run through mid afternoon.
At the main tent set up on the City Hall lawn, attendees can purchase armbands for $15 for all day play on the inflatables, tickets for the face painting and other games, Allie Cat bracelets and earrings, and $10 raffle tickets. Prizes for the raffles range from gift cards to gift baskets to Sip & Savor event tickets, all donated by local businesses.
Debit cards can be used at the main tent to purchase armbands and tickets. Food vendors will be cash only, Carruth said. An ATM machine also will be located on site for people needing cash.
A large portion of the proceeds from the annual run & festival, including $25,000 last year, goes to the Mississippi Organ Recovery Association to promote organ and tissue donation.
Proceeds from the festival also go to the Meridian Community College Nursing Program to fund scholarships and equipment needed by the program, which is dear to the family.
“Bill was in nursing school when Allie passed away, and they rallied around him and supported him,” Carruth said.
Several other community charities also are awarded grants with the remaining proceeds. The grants are selected by members of the Allie Cat Board, and Carruth encourages local organizations to apply for those grants each year.
While the Allie Cat Run and Festival has grown more than the family ever imagined, Carruth said their purpose is to honor not just Allie but also organ donors and recipients who get a new chance at life because of a donor’s gift.
“As a donor family, it was an honor for us to be able to do that, to know that Allie could give somebody life and that they could live,” she said.
But they also want to let recipients know that “we are here for you. We are all a family and you are not in this alone,” she said. “I feel like one thing Jesus asked us to do was to love each other, and what better way to love each other than by doing something like that.”