University Of Illinois Alum To Run 43 Miles For Children’s Speech And Reading Center

FORT COLLINS, CO — A University of Illinois alum will soon embark on a 43-mile run through the Colorado wilderness to raise money for the Children’s Speech and Reading Center of Northern Colorado, where her dyslexic 7-year-old son visits twice a week for Orton-Gillingham instruction.

The ISME Journal shared the story of Melissa Raguet-Schofield, who on June 26 will begin a trail run that will start just southeast of Denver and cover territory from there to Durango, Colorado near the Colorado-New Mexico border. An avid ultrarunner who has completed in races as long as 100 miles long, she will take on this endeavor through the Lost Creek Wilderness alone.

“In so many ways, running alone through the wilderness is exactly what it feels like to be the mom of a dyslexic-- you may be exausted (sic) and broken down, but you have to find a way to keep going, so that you can do what you need for your child,” Raguet-Schofield wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to help fund the charity run. The campaign and lead up to the run has already raised more than $2,500 for the center where her 7-year-old son, William, attends although the original goal was just $1,000.

She touts the organization that will benefit from the donations.

“Not only has William's reading comprehension and fluency improved by leaps and bounds, he's also achieved a healthy sense of self esteem,” she says of her son’s experience over the last eight months at the CSRC.

Now an adjunct professor of anthropology at Colorado State University, Raguet-Schofield is a native of Peoria and received a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Illinois.

Photo via GoFundMe