2021 Badge of Honor Benefit Run canceled

There will be no Badge of Honor Benefit Run in 2021 after organizers decided to cancel the event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The sixth annual run was held in October after having been postponed from its original April date.

Organizers went ahead with the 2020 event because it had been planned before the pandemic hit the area in mid-March.

“We already had got our sponsor money (and) paid for everything,” including the finisher medals and T-shirts, said Jeff Vitale, the race director.

The 2020 event had a record number of runners -- 202 -- sign up in run in either the 5K, 10K or half-marathon, Vitale said.

“I don’t know the exact (number of) people who participated,” said Vitale, who had estimated the number at about 150 runners on race day.

A lot, he said, canceled due to COVID.

“We had a few people inquire about the virtual part of it, but we were not set up for that,” Vitale said.

Organizers, he said, may consider a virtual run as part of their next event.

“We decided to not have an event in 2021 at this time unless something changes at our annual board meeting on May 1,” said Vitale.

The event, Vitale said, “literally takes a good year to plan. We just had one in October.

“It takes six months to really get going, get flyers prepared, (decided on) a theme for the event, design the finisher medals, get sponsor money.”

April, he said, is six months from the October race and “because of COVID we just don’t know how things are going to be” in 2021, Vitale said.

Since it takes a year to plan, “if we continue this, we’re looking at April 2022,” Vitale said.

The April date is early enough it doesn’t conflict with other events, such as Go St. Louis, which is held later in April, Vitale said.

“What happens, when you get too close to summer, events like a half-marathon or marathon, its too hot to do the longer events,” Vitale said. “That’s why you see those in the spring or fall.”

Vitale said the board may consider doing a fall event again, but Three Rivers College also has to be taken into consideration since that is where the races start and finish.

“The college wasn’t sure about having the event there” in October because college officials “were concerned about COVID too,” Vitale said. “Since it was outside, they let us have it. It’s the perfect venue for that event, and Dr. Wes Payne (TRC president) has been helpful with the event.”

Proceeds from the event are equally divided between the Missouri Association of State Troopers Relief Society (MASTERS), The BackStoppers Inc., Supporting Heroes and the Poplar Bluff Fraternal Order of Police No. 48’s annual Shop with a Hero program, which makes Christmas brighter for less-fortunate Butler County children.