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LIGHTNING PHOTOS: Rain, dear, fails to foil first Jones fund run

Runners braved rain to race in the first Reindeer Run for the Jones Family Scholarship Fund.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 24, 2014

More than a hundred runners turned out on Wednesday morning for the first Christmas Eve Reindeer Run to support the Jones Family Scholarship for  North Henderson High School seniors.

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"I'm overwhelmed with not only the number that came out but the number that couldn't be here and reached out and donated," said Ryan Jones, a 2002 NHHS graduate who founded the scholarship fund two years ago. He created the Reindeer Run this year to bolster the size of the scholarship. "It's an awesome thing. That's what it's really all about."

Neither a cold rain, shopping or other activities could stay the runners from their appointed round, a 5K loop that started at the front of the high school and circled North's cross country course and finished where it started.

"It's definitely over a hundred," Jones said of the turnout. "There are only a few bags that didn't get picked up. Pretty crazy, right?"

He said he was sure the race proceeds and extra donations had increased the fund for this year. "Absolutely, this year we'll be able to double the scholarship," he said.

As he stood under a canopy to start the race, Jones publicly thanked his parents, Daniel and Kathy Jones, his sister Brittany Jones Brady, and her husband. Jones' uncle, schools superintendent David Jones, came out to see the event, and associate schools superintendent Bo Caldwell ran in it.

Jones enlisted his mother as race registrar, something of a busman's holiday. In day job, she's registrar in the guidance office at North Henderson.

"I am amazed. I'm very proud of him," she said. "It started to grow and it's grown very quickly."

Jones, who has an undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in sports management from UNC at Chapel Hill, is director of development for University of Maryland sports.

For questions write to jonesfamilyscholarship@gmail.com.