Community honors Rector’s loves, life
Town of Greenfield teenager Chris Rector once wrote a poem about his favorite activity:
Running is like an escape from life
The Shoes like your wings to the world
Guiding your exit to reality
Now, a little more than a year after he lost his life in a fall, community members are still finding ways to memorialize him and the things he cared about: hunger, organ donation, and, of course, running.
When he died, Chris was 16, a sophomore at Baraboo High School and an avid member of the cross-country team. His mother, Jackie Smith, said he loved to run, even though he'd come into it late, in eighth grade.
"Once he found it, it was just that special thing," she said.
Not even a broken femur in May 2008 could stop him - he returned to the cross-country team that fall, running the last meet of his life, and the best since his broken leg, in October.
He was also, Jackie said, the kind of kid who would run a race just because it would benefit the food pantry, arriving with a can of something in hand, knowing it would have a direct impact on his peers.
"He loved to help out," Jackie said. "He'd say, ‘I know there are kids in my grade, in my school, that need this food pantry.' "
And when he died, less than six months after insisting adamantly on becoming an organ donor, his tissues went to more than 60 people, including a woman in California and a man in Indiana who received Chris' kidneys. Eight had knee reconstruction surgery thanks to him. Jackie can recite much of the donation list off the top of her head.
"He restored sight to two people," she said. "A lot of people had spinal fusions.
"It makes you feel like there's a part of him that's still living and still achieving things out there."
Now, Jackie wants him remembered, with the kind of event that he would most appreciate - a race to raise funds for the Baraboo Food Pantry.
Jackie, who became a runner only after her son's death, is now organizing a 5- and 10K run this fall to raise funds for the Baraboo Food Pantry, and a scholarship she and the rest of the family, including Chris' three brothers, established. The fund set up under the name "Hungry For Some Supper Myself," a play on something Chris said as a boy of 5 or 6, and which eventually became his tag line among family members.
Jackie said she started running, originally, with the intention of running a 5K in Chris' memory. She did that at the Cow Chip Classic in Sauk City last July. Since then, she's run more than a dozen races.
"I just haven't stopped," she said. "I love it, it makes me feel closer to him."
Money from the entry fees will be split between the Baraboo Food Pantry and the scholarship fund, originally created with money from Chris' memorial fund, and which honored two Baraboo students with $1,000 and $500 this year.
And Jackie still wants to keep organ donation in the minds of Baraboo residents.
When Chris decided to become a donor, she said, "He said, ‘Why would someone want to pass up the opportunity to save another person's life?
‘If I can't use my organs, but they can somehow help someone else by giving them one of mine, then I want to do that.' "
At the very least, she said, she wanted people to think about it, even if they never lost a loved one about whose tissues they would have to decide.
"It was really a help to us to know that Chris had already made that decision," she said. "To know that was the last thing he wanted to do.
"You don't want to make that decision when you're worrying about other things."
To keep the cause visible, the race will include a visit from organ donor mascot "Dottie the Dot."
Beside Jackie's efforts, one local company will literally sweat to raise awareness of the race and Chris' causes this summer. Chuck and Malinda Walker, of Sauk City-based Imagine Fitness, will hold free Saturday fitness "boot camps" in Sauk City and Baraboo all summer. The camp is family-oriented, and the workouts can be modified for any age or ability level, Chuck Walker said.
"Have a little family time, get some exercise, and help what we feel is a really worthy cause," Walker said.
Participants only need to bring in either a perishable food item, which will go to the local food pantry, or a monetary donation of any size for Chris' charity.
The classes typically have a $10 drop-in fee, but Walker said he wanted to use his business to raise awareness not just of the race, but the causes themselves.
"Chris made a decision to donate his organs to help out other people," he said. "I think that's something a lot of us forget about.
"Just to know how you can help other people ... is such a huge thing."
Walker, who knew Chris through his work as an athletic trainer at Baraboo High School, called Chris "one of the nicest kids I've ever come across."
He said even when he wasn't injured, Chris would come visit the trainers' room and ask questions about sports medicine.
"He just put out this vibe that he could be anybody's friend," Walker said. "He kind of looked out for people."
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