APO Runs Biggest Race of the Weekend

Members of APO depart campus in the Relay for Riley

There was no mistaking the real distance runners at Wabash College on Saturday.

While more than 200 harriers stretched and prepared for the Wabash Hokum Karem Cross Country Race, a dozen members of the Wabash chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, were doing a little stretching of their own.

The collegiate athletes prepared to run in the annual Hokum Karem, which is a relay-style cross country race in which pairs of runners take turn running one-mile loops around campus. The APO members, undaunted, realized that they were competing for a slightly different championship.

In a benefit for the Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, 12 members of APO set out on Saturday to run the distance from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis, about 50 miles in what was dubbed the “Relay for Riley.”

The Wabash APO Relay for Riley "team"

The idea to collect money and run the funds to Riley was APO president John Meyer’s. “The children at Riley have always had a special place in my heart,” the Wabash junior said. “I grew up in Greenwood on the south side of Indianapolis and have known the kind of special place Riley is all my life. I figured this was a great way to raise awareness of Riley and raise money for a good cause.”

Meyer and his cohorts in the Wabash chapter of APO had raised more than $1500 by the time they left campus at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. Meyer hopes the dollar total continues to increase.

Not many of the APO members are athletes and covering more than 50 miles with only 12 guys is not an easy undertaking. “We asked some of the cross country runners on campus if they wanted to run a few legs for us,” Meyer quipped.

Riley Hospital for Children receives patients from all over the United States, admits international patients, and never turns a child away regardless of financial circumstances.”

“That’s a pretty special place, so anything we can do to help them is a very good thing. In APO, that’s what we’re all about,” added Meyer.

Meyer’s parents drove the lead van in the Relay for Riley while Wabash librarian Larry Frye, the APO advisor, drove the chase van. Meyer even purchased a stuffed Teddy Bear with a blue and white APO shirt to give to a patient when the group finally arrives in Indianapolis, which Meyer believed would take about six hours.

Alpha Phi Omega is Wabash’s primary service fraternity. To become a member, students must be actively involved in community service. Recent senior members have logged over 1,000 hours of community service during their Wabash careers.

Each member used purple buckets to collect money on campus, while Meyer coordinated fund raising with corporations and agencies.

Meyer hopes the event is a success and believes the Relay for Riley has the chance to become an annual event. “We’ve worked hard to get it to this point and hope it can become an even bigger event that raises more money for Riley,” he said.