SHAMROCK RUN
Adam Brown 5K kicks off 13th year at LH Saturday
PEARCY — The Adam Brown Shamrock Run will kick off its 13th year Saturday at the Lake Hamilton School District campus, with over 400 participants registered as of Wednesday night’s online registration deadline.
The annual 5K run, open to all ages and skill levels, costs $35 to enter and will be held from 9 a.m. to noon. Awards and Smokin’ In Style BBQ will follow the run. Packets may be picked up today from 3-6 p.m. at Wolf Arena, as well as from 7-8 a.m. Saturday.
The event is held in honor of U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Adam Brown, a 1992 graduate of Lake Hamilton High School who was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan on March 17, 2010. Individuals and organizations in need benefit from proceeds raised.
Rachel Mundy, coordinator of the run, was a classmate of Brown’s.
“Several classmates, we all put our heads together and really wanted to do something to lift up his family and to honor him, and just to make sure that future generations know about Adam Brown in our community and in our state and in our world,” Mundy said of the run’s start 13 years ago.
“I mean, we just felt like it was an important story to be told, and so the run gives us a way to reach out to other people and to raise money. And by doing that, we’re keeping his legacy alive and we’re able to help other people, which is what he was all about,” she said.
For Mundy and their circle of friends, along with Brown’s family, the event has become something they look forward to every year, and they get excited to see other people so excited, she said.
“That team aspect was important to him in his life and sharing the Gospel with peo
ple. I mean, he really did. Guys in Afghanistan are usually worried about a lot of things and he was worried about getting shoes on kids and sharing the Gospel with people, and that’s huge. And that’s something that people need to know about,” she said.
In addition to giving funds raised to organizations such as Teen Challenge and Recovery Point Ministry that help people in recovery from addiction, the Adam Brown Legacy Foundation also gives away shoes with its Fearless Feet program.
Mundy explained that at the run, people are given “shoe cards” and tasked with taking a pair of shoes from the shoe table and finding someone who needs them.
“So those shoes have gone on mission trips, those shoes have gone to kids in foster care, those shoes have gone to people who are homeless, and that’s just another part of the gift that keeps on giving, too,” she said.
“He had his parents and family, literally, instead of care packets, he had them send him hundreds of pairs of shoes. Their church started doing it. It just grew, grew, grew, because he saw that the kids didn’t have shoes to wear.”
A book about Brown’s life, “Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown,” published in 2013, is being made into a movie by the Erwin Brothers’ faithbased Kingdom Story Company.
“That’s really exciting because (his family) wanted to make sure that if it was going to be done that it was going to be done in a way that. … Their faith and Adam’s faith being told was not up for negotiation. So that aspect had to be there and they wanted to make sure of it,” she said.
Mundy expects many more to register on site in the morning and join in on the fun. She noted people come from all over the country to run the 5K, including some who drive from New York and Colorado.
“We have people that will be doing their own virtual version of the run from, I mean … we’ve had people on aircraft carriers that, you know, ‘If I walk this many times, it’s a 5K,’” she said.
“Literally, one guy every year from Alaska (runs) and they send us pictures of them doing their 5K. … From all over the place. And we’ll mail out shirts after the run to a lot of people. It’s awesome, it really is. It’s just, it’s been a real powerful thing for his family and really for our community.”