About 250 runners participated in Lyons Hall's annual Mara Fox run Saturday, marking the 15th anniversary of the death of the Lyons Hall freshman who was hit and killed by a drunk driver in 1993, run organizers Jeana Caminiti and Katie Sample said.
The run was successful and had more participants this year than last year, Caminiti said.
"We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather and we had such a great turnout," Caminiti said.
The run raised a little over $3,000 through the $15 dollar registration fee and some personal donations, Sample said. While some of the money will pay for the T-shirts that were given to participants, most of the funds will go toward a scholarship fund to help a Notre Dame student study abroad in Toledo, Spain, she said. The scholarship fund was started in Fox's name the first year after she died, Caminiti said.
"[Mara Fox's] dream was to study abroad in Toledo," Sample said.
After Notre Dame, Fox wanted to be a psychiatrist in a Spanish speaking country, but on November 13, 1993, she was hit by a drunk driver when she was walking to campus, Sample said.
"It was a Notre Dame law student that hit her on Douglas Road, when she was walking back from Steak and Shake," she said.
Sample said Mara Fox's family comes to campus every year for the run.
"They were really happy with how things turned out this year," she said.
The race included a 5K run that started at Lyons Hall and ended in front of South Dining Hall and a 1-mile walk around Saint Mary's Lake, Caminiti said. Afterwards, the runners were served with bagels from Panera Bread, which "were a big hit," she said.
Caminiti said the top male, junior Michael Wrapp, won a cash prize, a bucket of candy and a pair of crocs. The top female, sophomore Laura Lindsley, received a gift certificate to a hair salon as well as crocs and a bucket of candy.
Caminiti and Sample said they have been working since the summer to put together the race. They enlisted about 40 volunteers from Lyons Hall to help sign up runners, design the T-shirts, put together the e-mail lists and publicize the event.
"Everything ran so smoothly," Caminiti said.
The week preceding the race, Lyons Hall worked closely with Pillars - a student group on campus run through the Office of Drug and Alcohol education - to raise awareness about drunk driving, Sample said.
"We had an event every day leading up to the run," she said.
The events included an information session with a golf cart that simulated that feeling of drunk driving and posters with statistics about drunk driving were set up outside of O'Shaughnessy Hall and DeBartolo Hall, Sample said.
