It’s time to get those running shoes laced up…the 14th Annual Butterfly 5K Run/Walk is coming up this Saturday, June 3rd!
Registration will be from 6:15 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. at Shelter #1 at the Waynesboro City Park. All runners are asked to please be registered by 7:30 a.m. The race will begin promptly at 8:00 a.m. If you park your vehicle inside the park, you will not be able to leave until after the Fun Run is completed. Door prizes will be given after the Fun Run.
The 5K is the major fundraiser event held each year to benefit The Butterfly Foundation. The Butterfly Foundation, a non-profit organization, raises money to assist families and children in Wayne and surrounding counties who have life-threatening or life-altering conditions.
The Butterfly Foundation was founded by Mrs. Dean Stegall in honor of her granddaughter, Ryleigh Meree Stegall. In June of 2000, Ryleigh, the daughter of Steven and Michelle Stegall of Waynesboro, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Ryleigh and her family began a seven-year battle against the disease which eventually took her life in September of 2007.
In those seven years, Ryleigh’s medical treatments took her and her family to several hospitals, doctors, and treatment facilities hundreds of miles from home. After her death in 2007, her family decided to begin a foundation that could help families within an approximate fifty-mile radius of Waynesboro with financial assistance for the expenses associated with traveling far from home with children who have severe, life- threatening conditions, not just cancer.
Ryleigh was fascinated with butterflies, so The Butterfly Foundation came into existence. In November of 2007, on Ryleigh’s birthday, The Butterfly Foundation held its first Ryleigh’s Walk with the Waynesboro schools as a fundraiser to help kick off the Foundation’s mission. The Walk eventually spread to the schools in Clifton and Collinwood, and the vision for a 5K Run/Walk became a reality.
In the first year of its existence, 2007-2008, The Butterfly Foundation gave grants totaling about three thousand dollars to local families who had children with life-threatening conditions to help with the financial costs of travel and hospital stays. Founder Dean Stegall said, “I thought that this was as good as it could get.” Little did she and the Stegall family know the impact the Foundation would have on more families in need of assistance.
The Butterfly Foundation announced in September of 2022 that they had officially reached the million dollar mark in money they have raised to help children with life-threatening or life-altering illnesses. The money for these gifts has come from a variety of sources: private donations in honor of and in memory of special people; the sale of t-shirts for Ryleigh’s Walk held each November; two books about the Foundation written and illustrated by local authors and artists; corporate donations; raffles; the Kiwanis Club Bar-B-Q dinner; and a host of other fundraisers. The greatest source of income has come from the sponsors and runners who participate in the 5K Run/Walk each year. Last year’s Run raised $120,000. This money goes out just about as fast as it comes in.
The Butterfly Foundation could not help the families they serve without tremendous support through monetary donations, volunteering hours to help with their projects, and prayers for them and the families they serve from their loyal supporters.
