Memorial Walk to Benefit Middleton Park

When Goose Creek residents hit the trail for a 5k walk around Middleton Park early Saturday morning, they’ll be doing it to put something new in the park.

Laine Holifield created the Miles for Myles annual fundraiser in April 2009, to honor her lost friend, Myles Lee Dunn, who died in a car accident.

The first event was a 60-mile motorcycle ride that raised $2,600 — enough to help Dunn’s mother pay for his tombstone and to put three local eighth graders through summer school. Last year’s event, a 100-mile motorcycle ride, raised $1,600 for the local Ronald McDonald House and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

This year, Holifield, a Goose Creek High graduate, didn’t have to look far for a worthy cause. “I have a 2-year-old now,” she said. The pair often visit Middleton Park and it has a lot to keep little ones busy, but there are few places to sit for parents.

“When I’m there, I’m not comfortable,” Holifield says. “I think it would be great to make the park more parent friendly.” The money raised Saturday will pay for picnic tables and park benches for parents.

The 5k route will send walkers on a three-mile route around Crowfield Plantation that starts and stops at Middleton Park. At the finish line: a kids carnival at 9 a.m. with music, games, face painting, balloon animals, crafts, jump castles and a waterslide.

Registration begins at 7 a.m. and the walk starts at 8 a.m. The entry fee is $10 per person and $5 per stroller, walking child or pet. For more info or to make a donation, contact the Crowfield Plantation Home Owners Office at 843-572-4758.

The walk will be for a good cause, but it is also an opportunity to walk in honor of someone you’ve lost. For Holifield, that person is still Myles Dunn. “It’s my way of loving him out loud,” she said

Walkers are encouraged to make buttons, T-shirts or hats, or to bring pictures or make a sign with their loved ones name and or image on it.