Sean C. Morgan
“The Walking Dead” will be back on TV screens on Oct. 23, and everyone will find out just who took Negan’s baseball bat, Lucille, to the face in the Season Six cliffhanger.
It’s a big day as far as TV shows go; but six days later, the dead will walk in Sweet Home and benefit Sunshine Industries.
Lisa Gourley, Pat Gray and Bruce Hobbs are organizing a new running event, the Zombie Zoup Run. Gourley is organizing the a “zombie zoup” meal to follow the run, which Gray is handling. Hobbs is in charge of the zombies, who will be stationed along the course.
“It’s called ‘zoup’ because we’re having ‘zoup’ at the end,” Gray said. Runners and “friendly zombies” will sit together and enjoy a soup lunch after the run.
Gourley said she has eight sponsors providing soup so far.
“We’re looking for people from organizations that want to participate,” Gourley said, and create booths with fun activities.
The group also is looking for more soup sponsors and volunteers, particularly zombies.
The idea came to the three as they chatted between City Council meetings one evening, Gray said. Hobbs, a former city councilor who works at Sunshine Industries, was talking about zombies. Gourley had been mulling an idea for a soup feed to serve as a community fund-raiser after organizing the successful First Book event, which brought 40,000 books to Sweet Home children.
The idea was to have fun and promote the city’s parks, Gray said. They set a date for Halloween weekend and started putting the event together.
“It’s the only zombie run in the valley because it does not appear Albany is doing theirs,” Gray said. “We just wanted to do something fun.”
“It’s going to be a kick even if you don’t run,” Gourley said. “I just think it’s a really fun thing to do, an amazing opportunity for people to play – and they need to play – in a healthy way.”
It’s a tremendous opportunity for Sweet Home to do another event, she said. “We’ve got the hero run. We’ve got the dam run. We’ve got the Sweetheart Run. Why not do a zombie run?”
The 2-mile fun run begins at 10 a.m. on Oct. 29 at the Jim Riggs Community Center, 880 18th Ave. The route includes 18th Avenue, Elm Street, the South Hills Trail, 10th Avenue, 12th Avenue and Sankey Park.
The entry fee is $20 if pre-registering and $25 the day of the event.
Adult shirts cost $15. Shirts are guaranteed to those registering prior to Oct. 15.
Children’s shirts are $10. Registration forms are available at City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.
On Facebook, the run is listed as an event under the Sweet Heart Run’s page.