The Union Hill Challenge

The picture above is of my Dad, Steve Howard running in Ionia. This photo was in the local paper, The Sentinel Standard around 1980. My dad was an active member in the Ionia community for over 20 years. He worked for the local radio station, WION for 15 years, then for Ionia schools, and later for Michigan Works. He volunteered at a number of organizations including the Commission on Aging and with the City Recreation Department, where he coached me in just about everything. 

In addition to his volunteering, he served as the president of the library board and even tried to get a new library built in Ionia. My dad loved to read. If he wasn’t supporting me or others at Ionia sporting events, he was reading. He could get lost in a book and loved his mystery novels. 

My Dad passed away on February 2nd in 2011 at the age of 56. I wanted to run a marathon in his honor on the one year anniversary of his death, but that didn’t happen.

So on the tenth anniversary (Feb. 2, 2021) of his passing I’m challenging myself to run/walk up Union hill 28 times and back down it the same number. If completed I will have gone up and down it 56 times. These “laps” will start near the library and the turn around will be at Tower Street.

I will be raising money for Ionia Community Library. Everything raised will be donated back to an organization he loved in his memory.  I hope to raise $2,000 to be put back into the community he cared so much about. 

So please donate what you can and help me reach my goal. I will be posting training vlogs here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsuxCBQ60pDAWO9oUVIuogA

and follow my running page on Facebook/Instagram to see how I’m training for this challenge. You can do that here: @berttrailruns