SIESTA KEY – A 5K in honor of a teenager taken too soon is paying it forward to young scholars on the Suncoast.
“He had a smile just lit up the room, he was a jokester,” Andrew Monroe Memorial 5k Organizer, Stacey Monroe.
Hundreds gathered on Siesta Key Sunday morning to participate in the 9th annual Andrew Monroe Memorial 5k.
“The race is in memory of my son Andrew, he was a freshman at Florida Gulf coast, he passed away in a tragic car accident, March 13th 2011, and his father and I put the race together starting in 2014, and we decided we were going to do scholarships to keep his memory alive,” said Stacey Monroe.
More than 400 runners, laced up their sneakers to run in honor of Andrew Monroe
“And there are runners of all ages, from 7 year old’s to 80 year old’s,” said 5K Volunteers, Lindsay Goffinet and Sandy Eaton.
Last year the 5k raised $17,000, Monroe says this year’s funds surpassed the previous numbers.
“The scholarship money will go directly to Riverview High School Senior athletes, soccer athletes, and track, and ROTC cadets,” said Stacey Monroe.
Any remainder of funds will go to the Community Foundation of Sarasota County fund in honor of Andrew.
“There are currently two scholarships a thousand dollars apiece in perpetuity forever so the more money we throw to it after, the more it’ll grow and I can eventually stop doing the race,” said Stacey Monroe.
“It feels good to be a part of something like this, and help Stacey and bring awareness to the community, it really does,” said Eaton.
“It helped me get through a lot, and move forward a lot faster, now it’s just, he’s probably very unhappy with me, he was not very flashy, so he would tell me to knock it off,” said Stacey Monroe.
The next Andrew Monroe Memorial 5k is already scheduled for next January.
For more information on the Andrew Monroe Memorial Scholarship fund you can visit their website here.