Montrose’s very own Run Like a Maverick 5K Road Race attracted a loyal crowd on Sunday, May 1st. While younger children ran a one-mile course and older kids and adults wound through the 5K course, children enjoyed face painting, a balloon artist and bouncy house. Hear the moving testimony by Abe Schickel, Elizabeth’s father, and enjoy scenes from the day that honored this heroic Montrose Maverick.

The race proceeds went to the Elizabeth Mary Clare Schickel Scholarship Fund. Elizabeth was an outstanding student, artist and athlete, whose steadfast faith, indomitable determination and joyful nature has  left an enduring mark on Montrose and on all the students and teachers blessed to know her. She struggled heroically against brain cancer and set an example of courage and virtue that has revealed her saintly nature. All who knew Elizabeth, especially during her illness, consider her  a saint; and many pray daily for her intercession.

Elizabeth loved to run, and the damage caused by her cancer left her unable to run in the last year of her life. She fought hard to run again, and she said: “Once I can run again, I’m never going to stop.” Read Elizabeth’s  story.

This run honors Elizabeth’s spirit as well as her memory, a spirit that lives on in all the lives she touched during her all-too-short life and among all the Montrosians who benefit from the generosity of the Schickel family and donors to the Elizabeth Mary Clare Schickel Scholarship Fund. Consider becoming a sponsor as well.

All of Elizabeth’s sisters  have either graduated (Elysha, Hannah, Catherine) or attend Montrose, with  Theresa ’18 and Maria ’20 currently in the school. Elizabeth would have graduated with her Class of 2016 this spring, and this year’s race occurred on the eve of, what would have been, Elizabeth’s 18th birthday. Her birthday crown has been replaced by a heavenly one, as her father said, and we all hold Elizabeth and the Schickel family in the center of our hearts.