Photo by Peter G. Sánchez
Karen Clemens, head of physical education at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School, Pennsauken, dresses in a chicken suit, and Bishop Eustace students get ready for “The Chicken Runs at Midnight” 3K, held in Haddonfield on Friday, May 21, to raise money for cancer.
HADDONFIELD — On Friday, May 21, a chicken ran at midnight in the hope that a permanent cure for cancer may be hatched.
Sponsored by the Canuso Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children and their families affected by cancer, “The Chicken Runs At Midnight” was a 3K run down Kings Highway, from Haddonfield Memorial High School to the Patco Train Station, and back. Close to 700 individuals young and old participated in the run.
The Canuso Foundation was started by the family of 9-year-old Babe Canuso, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1974. Shortly after her diagnosis, the organization was started to spur funding for pediatric cancer research, and to help young cancer patients and their families deal with the effects of this disease.
A division of the nonprofit is called Babe’s Kids, a “for kids by kids” group where youth help their peers with cancer. Babe’s father, John Canuso, a home builder in Philadelphia, also started the first Ronald McDonald house in the country, in Philadelphia, in 1975.
After recovering from leukemia, Babe grew to have her own family, and continued to support the foundation. In 2005 she died from a brain tumor, a long-term side effect of her childhood cancer treatment.
Patricia Arnold, Christian service coordinator at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Pennsauken, said that 365 students, parents, and faculty members did the 3K, inspired by the Canuso family and Donnelly’s recent visit to the school. More than two dozen students and faculty from Gloucester Catholic High School also did the run, as well as students and staff from Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill.
Even the department head of physical education at Bishop Eustace, Karen Clemens, had a fowl attitude, promising to run the event in a chicken costume if at least 200 students participated. With the student participation reached, she made good on her word, no feathers ruffled.
The event brought close to 1,000 people to Haddonfield Memorial High School, with a carnival-like atmosphere that included a Relay for Mia Strobel, a 7-year-old Haddonfield resident with leukemia, around the school track; a festival that included food, music, and other entertainment; and the midnight run, which ended with a trophy presentation to the top three finishers in the men’s and women’s categories.
“The Chicken Runs at Midnight” is a phrase attributed to former Pittsburgh Pirates third base coach Rich Donnelly’s teenage daughter, Amy, who asked her father if that’s what he’d say when he was talking with his players on the field. Shortly thereafter, the phrase became popular in the clubhouse. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in early 1992, Amy died less than a year later, at the age of 18.
The phrase took on bigger significance when the 1996 Florida Marlins, a team with which Donnelly was third base coach, won the World Series in October. After player Craig Counsell, nicknamed “The Chicken” for the way he moved his elbow while in his batting stance at the plate, scored the winning run to give the Marlins the championship, Donnelly looked at the clock: it was midnight. The chicken ran at midnight.
Hearing this story, Canuso contacted Donnelly, and the fundraiser run was created.
For more information on the Canuso Foundation, go to www.canusofoundation.org
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