Eighth Strader-Davies Run could be the last

Eight years ago, Holton community members put together a five-kilometer run and two-mile walk to honor three members of the Holton community who shared a passion for running and to raise funds for a new community building at Banner Creek Reservoir.

This year, the eighth-annual Ron and Scott Strader and Tom Davies Memorial Run, scheduled for Saturday, June 27 at the reservoir grounds as part of the annual July Jubilee, will also honor the work of the late Billy “Lu” Griffiths, who helped the Friends of Banner Creek Foundation to obtain grant funds to build the community building, according to Friends of Banner Creek treasurer Beth Nelson.

It’s also planned as the last Strader-Davies Memorial Run, Nelson said, noting that the fund-raising side of the annual run has reached its goal and the community building is nearing completion.

“That was the rationale for the run in the first place — as a fund-raiser for the building,” she said. “If someone else wants to take the run over, that would be wonderful. I think it’d be great if a cross-country team would take it over, particularly since a lot of the younger runners are on cross-country teams.”

The run was first held Saturday, June 2, 2018, to raise funds for the community building and honor Davies and the Straders, all of whom loved running and were instrumental in organizing the annual French Market run during the years of that event, Nelson said.

All three of them were involved in and supported a variety of community programs prior to their deaths — Scott Strader in 2011, from cancer; his father, Ron Strader, in 2017; and Davies in 2016.

“We reached out to the (Strader and Davies) families to do something out here at Banner for them,” Nelson said. “Both the families have been very supportive of this project.”

Griffiths, who came on board as reservoir director in 2019, was key in helping Friends of Banner Creek obtain grant funds through the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism for construction of the community building, Nelson said.

“At that time, we didn’t really have a plan — we were just trying to raise funds,” Nelson said. “Lu told us, ‘I know how we could possible get some money to put this building up,’ and he told us about the grant opportunity… He was very much a part of this whole building.”

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