Photo courtesy of Levite Jewish Community Center.
Runners participating in the annual Sam Lapidus Montclair Run on Montclair Road in November 2019.
The 46th annual Sam Lapidus Montclair Run is coming back to the Levite Jewish Community Center on Thanksgiving Day.
The run will benefit LJCC, with five dollars of each runner’s registration going to the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders.
The Thanksgiving tradition began in 1976 as the Montclair Run and has been a popular event in the community ever since. It was renamed in 2009 after 14 year-old Sam Lapidus, who died after a six-year battle with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in 2008.
Prior to his passing, Lapidus enjoyed working out at the LJCC, and scheduled treatments around his workouts. According to a press submission by the LJCC, Bruce Sukol, a friend of Lapidus’ from the LJCC, wanted to honor Lapidus’ memory and asked the LJCC to rename the run in his honor.
The event is the community center’s largest fundraiser, hosting around 1,500 runners each year, as well as 1,000 spectators, said Katie Hausman Grace, community engagement director for Levite Jewish Community Center.
“Sam’s family will also be there front and center, running,” Grace said. “We are a non-profit community center. This is a fundraiser for us, and we’re honored to be able to tie Sam’s family into that. It’s a two-fold fundraiser because we are fundraising for ourselves and then we’re also able to give a donation in Sam’s memory each year which is really great.”
This year’s event will feature a 5K, 10K and 1-mile fun run. For more information visit bhamjcc.org/sam-lapidus-montclair-run.
Sam Lapidus Montclair Run
WHERE: Levite Jewish Community Center
WHEN: Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24
