Talk about smashing a goal to fight hunger.
Greensboro runner Matt Ketterman celebrated his 20-year streak of consecutive days run with a fundraiser Saturday to collect donations to help the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina.
The goal: Raising enough money for the Food Bank to buy 7,300 cans. That goal total is equal to one can per day of Ketterman's 20-year streak.
The total raised (and counting): Runners and others have contributed $2,138, or enough to buy more than 25,000 cans.
"It was humbling; it was amazing," Ketterman says.
Among the donations, Ketterman says, have been checks in triple digits, but he says every dollar helps. Even a donation of a couple of bucks will help the Food Bank buy 24 cans.
Ketterman says his company, Got You Floored, makes donations based on email carpet orders or Realtor referrals. So he tied together his business, its charitable efforts and his own streak to launch this fundraiser. Ketterman says he'll donate the total on behalf of the Piedmont Triad Apartment Association.
More than 100 runners gathered Saturday for a 20K long run along the Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway. Ketterman now wants to make the event annual, although he thinks a shorter distance, maybe 10 miles, would be preferable in the summer heat.
As for Ketterman, the streak recognized by the U.S. Running Streak Association continues: Three miles on Sunday, eight on Monday, three already complete today.
"As long as the good Lord will allow," he says of the streak's future. "As long as my health keeps up, as long as I possibly can."
If Ketterman, 40, keeps the streak going to match the total number of cans raised above his goal of 7,300, he's going to be running for a while. Until he's an old man. Until he's 91.
Can he do it?
"Yeah, I think so," he says with a laugh.
Information: Email Matt Ketterman.
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