34th Annual Tower Trot Unites Western Springs Community

Len Caldeira had a vision in 1978. With no real funding besides a tight tax bill, Caldeira decided to put on a local race for the community. Thirty-three years later, his vision is an extremely popular event that brings out an entire community.

"When I conceived the idea, I went to Tim Eggert from Competitive Foot. I told him 'I want to do this race, but we can't lose money.' The early goal was to just break even," said Caldeira.

"It was three years before we were making money. Without them [Competitive Foot] we wouldn't exist."

The Tower Trot originally did start at the Tower. It moved to 5020 Central Ave. because of construction.

The event . Together they've managed to raise over $140,000 for families impacted by pediatric cancer.

An estimated 1200 participants were there for the event, which featured a 10k race, a 5k race and a minor race for children. The starting gun for the 5k event was triggered by Larry Dunn, a pediatric cancer survivor. Dunn ran the event as a child and ran in the 5k again this year.

Winners of the 10k race were Jack Hostettler, whose father Len knows personally, and Samantha Kirkham-Iteld was the first woman to finish. Hotstettler's time was 34:23 and Kirkham-Iteld's was 41:36. Alex Lyons was behind Hostettler at 35:15.

A mother-son combination won the 5k, as Alex Lyons crossed in front of Hotstettler this time. The two were running a double event and participated in both. Lyons finished the 5k at the 16:51 mark. His mother Lisa Menninger finished at 19:43.

"It has a hometown feel, it's more personal," said Patty Colin, a Forest Hills resident. Her son and daughter ran the 10k event.

"It has galvanized the community," said Caldeira. "Our course records are good. I think there's a direct correlation between young kids participating in this event and then going on to do high school track or cross country."

Caldeira ran track and cross country as a teenager in high school. He was a member of the track & field teams as well as the cross country team. He was never a competitive runner as an adult however, as he ran only for exercise. He always kept track of his times however.

"One time I was coming home and I saw my neighbor had this trophy," Caldeira said. He asked the neighbor what the trophy was for. It was from a running event. "I compared the times and I saw that my practice times were faster than his winning time."

With that began a journey of over 300 races run and around 170 medals. It also started the idea for this event.