Hernando runs for reading at Water Tower 10K
Photo: Runners leave the starting line of Saturday’s Hernando Water Tower 10K race. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
The streets of Hernando were busier than normal Saturday morning for more than the usual reasons, as hundreds of runners plodded the streets for the annual Hernando Water Tower 10K race, presented by Hollywood Casino and 1st Jackpot Casino of Tunica.
Official results from the run show 406 runners took part, leaving from near Hernando City Hall at 8 a.m. to run the 10 kilometers, or 6.21 miles. Some were out to challenge themselves toward a new personal record, some to just say they could do it, and others were running to ready themselves for the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis in early December. And, there were likely those just knowing that a fun party on Panola Street follows the miles of running, jogging, or even walking.
For whatever reason, each participant also knew the run helped benefit the Hernando Excel By 5 Dolly Parton Imagination Library. That’s the program Hernando parents can be a part of by signing up their child prior to age 5 to receive a free age-appropriate book each month until they are five-year-old. The books will keep coming until that age or they leave the Hernando city limits.
All families in the Hernando city limits with preschool children (from birth to the child’s 5th birthday) are eligible to enroll in the program.
“We now have 650 children registered in the city limits of Hernando and close to 700 have graduated in the last year,” Race organizer Gia Matheny said about the program earlier last month. “What we have found is that children who read and receive books as their first sort of enjoyment, it gets them to really understand and learn that reading is fun and they learn to read by the time they get to kindergarten, or get very close to it.”
The Hernando Water Tower 10K remains one of the major fundraisers to keep the program going.
The overall men’s winner at the end of the race Saturday was 33-year-old Adam Ridinger of Hernando, who ran the course in 37 minutes, 53 seconds. Meanwhile, another 33-year-old runner, Amy Mitchell of Southaven, was the top female runner in a time of 43 minutes and 22 seconds.
The youngest runner in the race was D. Correro of Hernando. The oldest woman listed in the official results was 74-year-old Patsy Boren of Horn Lake and the oldest man taking part was 77-year-old Gerald Dye of Batesville.
