Middle schoolers run distance to Connecticut for charity

HOUGHTON — Two Houghton Middle School students have come up with a way to run the distance to Connecticut without leaving the Copper Country, while raising money to help fight cancer.

Eight graders Grace Bergstrom and Sam Olson developed the idea to encourage people to get sponsors to pledge money for each mile ran this summer. The students will be hosting a kickoff event this Saturday morning at the Houghton Waterfront Park at 9:30 where they will start collecting pledges and selling stickers with their logo.

All the money raised will be donated to the American Cancer Society. The goal is to run the same amount of miles it would take to run from Houghton Middle School to Connecticut.

“Mr. (Jeff) Hauswirth, which is our P.E. teacher, he does not run at all,” said Houghton Middle School eighth grader Grace Bergstrom. “He does not like running and he always says, ‘If you want to run cross country, run to Connecticut!’ That’s what he says. Me and my friend, Sam, took that as a challenge, so we decided that we should run 1,111 miles, which is the distance from this school right here to Connecticut and then we should do it for a charity.”