Despite overcast skies and a chilly wind, hundreds of runners, walkers and community residents gathered in downtown Meridian on Saturday, March 23, for the Seventh Annual Allie Cat Run & Festival held on the city hall lawn.
Early morning’s dreary race weather soon gave way to sunny skies by lunchtime with festival goers enjoying an array of games, activities and live music.
The annual event was founded in 2018 by Leslie and Bill Carruth, whose daughter Allie was an organ donor, as a way to honor the memory of Allie and other organ donors. The event also sought to bring awareness to the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation in saving people’s lives.
In addition to a 5k run and walk, a kids fun run was held, drawing dozens of young children. Other activities included inflatable bounce houses and slides, live music, pony rides, a petting zoo, children’s games, arts and crafts, raffle drawings and lots of good food. Entertainment was provided by Jonathan Quigley and My Savior Story and Tyler Sellers.
During a mid-morning ceremony, race awards were presented and a representative from the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency spoke to the crowd about organ donation. Also, guest speaker Gary Chapman, an art professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, spoke about the other side of organ donation as the family of an organ recipient. Chapman’s daughter, Sadie, who was born with a congenital heart defect, was the recipient of a donor’s heart at age 19. Sadly, Sadie got sick and died in March 2023 at age 26. An exhibition of Chapman’s paintings in tribute to his daughter opened Saturday at the Meridian Museum of Art and will run through National Donate Life Month in April.
Proceeds raised from the Allie Cat Run & Festival are donated to numerous organizations, including Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency, scholarships and community projects sponsored by local nonprofit organizations.