Memories die hard.
On Labor Day morning, and in partial celebration of the village’s 75th anniversary, a 3-kilometer event commemorating the old Park Forest Scenic Ten race, will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. in and around the Central Park area.
Instead of a 10-mile event, which for more than 30 years drew some of the best international distance runners and to run around the lake in the Sauk Trail Forest Preserve and then through the streets of village, this event will be a do-it-yourself run-trot-walk covering 3 kilometers or a mere 1.86 miles as it weaves along the park’s paths and byways.
Park Forest Recreation and Parks Director Kevin Adams said the fee of $15 will allow the first 100 who enter to be rewarded with a free pancake and sausage breakfast and a T-shirt. This meal may conjure up memories of the Park Forest Kiwanis Club’s Pancake Day breakfasts, in which a massive “Pankatron” mechanism poured, cooked and delivered edibles to a waiting public in a large tent and later in Rich East High School.
That meal is a memory of days gone by as is the local Kiwanis, which was terminated by the governing body of Kiwanis International. Old-time members point a verbal finger and say it died from a “lack of leadership.”
The Pankatron, however, rests in the Kiwanis Museum in Indianapolis as a symbol of what an active citizenry can accomplish.
Saddest of all, there are no footsteps of students in the halls of the neglected high school.
There was a time when the Park Forest Scenic Ten was a Labor Day competition which gained national attention by drawing some of the best distance runners in the world as it quickly became a national showcase for the village
During most of its existence from 1977 to 2008, the Scenic Ten involved hundreds of residents who staffed water stations along the route, called out times and aided tired runners in need of a quick break or cheered them on their way. It was this welcoming attitude that helped make the Scenic 10 one of the top road races in the Chicago area.
Every runner was given a T-shirt before the race started. Every runner who finished got a beribboned decoration to hang around their neck for a day. My 2002 medal is draped on a bookcase pole. The shirt is a distant memory.
The race began and ended in the then-bustling downtown area. A string quartet serenaded the runners as they entered the Sauk Trail Forest Preserve as hundreds of volunteers worked behind the scenes and along almost every street corner. Traffic on Western Avenue, Sauk Trail and other streets in the village was halted, allowing runners to cross.
The primary goal was, we were told, to highlight the village and its amenities, which included its enthusiastic residents.
Over the years, the race budget soared to $80,000 with the village chipping in about $30,000. It was money needed to attract top-flight runners. But as the race drew regional and national attention, willing workers became scarcer. In 2007, both race administrator Martha Davidson and race director Bud James retired, jeopardizing the event’s future.
A new 5-mile event was created for the next two years, but those once-resolute volunteers were gone. Some died, some moved and some lost interest. Smaller, it may have been assumed, is not better. Fewer than 500 entered those last years and fewer than 40 local residents. That final year, no one from Park Forest finished in the top 250 runners.
When Scenic Ten ended, John Joyce, then the village’s rec and parks director, spoke the last rite for the race, saying “we had about one-half dozen calls about the race this year and none from a potential volunteer.”
Some memories get caught in the teeth of time and never die.
Jerry Shnay, at Jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.