This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
The Nittany Valley Running Club’s Herbie’s Home Town Loop will return for its 18th year at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, at Rogers Stadium in Bellefonte.
Funds from this year’s 4-mile run/walk will benefit the Bellefonte Area high School track and field program, according to the event’s Facebook page. Portions of the proceeds will also go toward the Jeremy Herbstritt Memorial Scholarship and to the family of Nathan Dann, a Bellefonte Area High School student athlete who died in a swimming accident in May of this year.
The BAHS lacrosse team will also collect donations at the race to help the Dann family create a scholarship in Nathan Dann’s name.
“Jeremy Herbstritt was a 1998 Bellefonte Area High School graduate who loved life and the outdoors. He, and 31 other students and professors, were killed during a mass shooting on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia,” a press release for the event stated.
The event was created in 2007 by Herbstritt’s family and friends “to remember and honor him and give something back to the community who gave so much to them in their time of grief,” according to the statement.
“We started this labor of love 18 years ago to build a track in the Bellefonte area to allow our home school to practice and compete and provide a place for our community to gather and enjoy the outdoors and some exercise. Our dream was realized in 2019 when the Jeremy Herbstritt and Lt Jonas Martin Panik US Navy premier track and field facility became a reality at Rogers Stadium.”
Free parking will be available at Bellefonte Area High School and a free shuttle will be available from the high school to the Bellefonte Arts and Crafts Fair after the race.
Registration is $35. Race-day registration and bib pick-up will begin at 7 a.m. on the day of the race.
