Going The Distance
Heritage High group set to run across Nicaragua
In 2017, ground was broken on what was to become the Katie Beth Carter Memorial Institute (KBCMI) in the Tomas’ Borge community of Nicaragua, named for the well-liked former Heritage High School student who tragically passed away in 2016.
Six years later, with the new high school thriving, members of the Heritage Leadership Class, who initially started up the Central American school, are getting set to return to begin the next phase of the campus.
Ground will be broken on a new elementary school for the area early next month with plans to hopefully open the doors to its first students in 2024.
And with that in mind, a group from the Leadership Class will be heading back to Nicaragua on June 1 to participate in what they are calling the “Legacy Run” to bring awareness to the community, the school, and to hopefully inspire financial support for the project.
A team of 13 runners, including Leadership Class teacher E.K. Slaughter, fellow HHS teacher and track coach Christie Richardson, and Heritage students Brooke Fairchild, Emily Etris and Landon Hoover, will spend part of five days running in a relay of approximately 300 miles from Bluefields to Leon, finishing some 13 miles inland from where the KBCMI is located.
“The (KBCMI) is operated and funded by local volunteers, many of whom are teachers,” Slaughter explained. “We’re trying to raise the funds for the overhead for the elementary school.”
Slaughter said he was inspired to organize the Legacy Run after taking part in a similar run about a decade ago. Back then, he was part of a team that ran 24 hours a day for eight days from Cleveland, Ohio to Boston, Mass. to help raise money for victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
“We actually planned to do this in 2020, but that got ruined, so this is kind of a rebound from that,” he said. “We’re starting with our feet in the Atlantic Ocean and we’ll run all the way to get our feet in the Pacific. It’s going to take us five days and everybody will run different mileages every day depending on their desire and ability.”
Slaughter explained that a sponsor has pledged to take care of the first year of overhead for the new elementary school and all money raised will go toward helping fund the second year in 2025.
He estimated that it would take about $5,000 a month over the course of 12 months to fund the cost. Sponsorships, available on the website (lb4c.org/legacy-run-2023), range from $5 to $500.
“Even if we’re only able to generate enough to cover $1,000 a month, that would still be huge and it would take a lot of the pressure off of us,” Slaughter added, noting that the Tomas’ Borge community is one of the poorest areas in the entire Western Hemisphere.
For Fairchild, a graduating senior, this will be her third trip to the region and said seeing the area firsthand made her want to get involved and stay involved.
“They’re obviously in poverty down there, but for the most part, when you get to have conversations with the people, they’re happy to see us,” she said. “They’re just happy people and very happy and proud of the school. I love just getting to go down there and being part of that and trying to help that generation change and have something better.”
Etris, a rising senior and a member of the school’s track team, said she was looking forward to the trip, especially since it will not only be her first trip overseas, but her first time flying on a plane.
“I’m pretty excited,” she said. “(Training) has been pretty fun, some days better than others, but I’m looking forward to seeing how everything is down there. I know we’re going to be doing something great there, so it just feels good to be a part of it.”
Hoover, an upcoming sophomore who runs both track and cross country, said he’s also been upping his miles in preparation.
He added that he’s visited povertystricken areas before in other places, and that trips like this one always make an impact on him.
“I’ve gotten to travel a whole bunch,” said Hoover. “I’ve been to Cuba and Mexico and some Native American reservations, so I’m really excited to be going. All those different places affect you and help you build character, especially when you get to go down and see and experience that level of poverty.
“We’re kind of in our first-world, Americanized-bubble. We might say things are hard, but we don’t really
experience what ‘hard’ actually is.”
It’s a sentiment that Slaughter echoed.
“For the students (at Heritage) who have gone (to Nicaragua), it’s been really neat just to see the change in them with the way they think and the way they dream,” he said. “We’ve had kids who have gone down there and it’s ended up changing who they are. It just gives you a different idea of gratitude when you go down there. There’s things you can learn down there that you can’t learn here in a classroom.”
Richardson, who is planning to run the equivalent of five half-marathons (13 miles) for five straight days during her first trip to the region, said she jumped at the chance to get involved and was thrilled that two of her track athletes would be participating after Slaughter extended the invitation.
“I just feel like for me, as a track coach, seeing them use their running as a gift to help other people and raising awareness of what that school is doing, takes what I’m doing as a track coach to where I want it to be, where they aren’t seeing running as just a sport,” she explained. “It’s something they can do to help others and become better people through running.
“Both of them have really worked hard. They’ve been consistent with their running and it’s just good to see these kids develop into people through this sport, and to see Coach Slaughter being inclusive and wanting everybody involved.”
The first four days of the Legacy Run (June 3-6) will cover between 60 and 90 miles each, while the final 13 miles will be run on the morning of June 7, right after the groundbreaking ceremony. Slaughter said some students from the KBCMI were even training to join them on the final leg of the run.
“We thought it would be years before we could open an elementary school, but we had a visitor come down, loved what we were doing and now they’re going to invest lots of money to build it,” Slaughter said. “It’s just been one of those things were things have just happened. A door opens and we walk through it and try to make it work and then another door opens. Now we’re just making that next adjustment and trying to raise money for that. It’s been pretty amazing.”
More information on the KBCMI and the efforts ongoing in the region can be found at lb4c.org.