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Boardman father plans to repeat 24-hour walk at Relay for Life
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Jerry Jones and his sons, Eric, 14, left, and Austin, 10, will have a team at this weekend’s Relay For Life of Boardman. Jerry and Eric plan to walk all 24 hours of the Relay For Life.
BOARDMAN
A township man and his son plan to walk their way into the record books at this weekend’s Relay For Life of Boardman.
Jerry Jones, 47, and his son, Eric, 14, will attempt to walk all 24 hours of Relay For Life of Boardman, which begins at 6 p.m. today and continues until 6 p.m. Saturday.
Relay For Life at Center Middle School on Market Street raises funds for the American Cancer Society. It also serves as a chance to celebrate cancer survivors and remember those who have died from cancer.
Last year, Jerry became the oldest person to walk throughout the entire Relay For Life of Boardman. He said he wasn’t planning to repeat the feat this year, but Eric persuaded him to do it. If they stay on the track for 24 hours, Jerry will retain his title, and Eric will be the youngest person to complete the challenge.
“After seeing him do it, I thought it would be cool to go out and do it for my mom and everyone else who has had cancer,” Eric said.
Eric’s mom, Jill Jones, a first- grade teacher at Stadium Drive Elementary, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in September 2009. She has walked with Stadium’s Relay For Life team for many years, but last year was the first time Jerry and their sons, Eric and Austin, 10, formed a family and friends team called “Keeping Up With the Jones’.”
Jerry said after chemotherapy and the use of Gleevec, a medicine, Jill is doing very well and doesn’t talk about cancer often publicly. Jill declined an interview.
Jerry said he wanted to get involved with Relay For Life because, as a handyman by trade, he is used to fixing problems.
“I’d go to the hospital every day, and I did the best job I could to take care of the house and keep the kids on schedule, but there’s nothing you can do. There’s literally nothing you can do. ...It was the most hopeless feeling,” he said.
That feeling coupled with the knowledge that the American Cancer Society funds scientists who are trying to find a cure for all types of cancer compelled him to participate, he said.
“It’s incredible on a daily basis the amount of progress [researchers] make, and I didn’t believe that at first,” Jerry said. “You get people who say donate to the cancer society and you say where’s the money going? Everyone who gets cancer dies from it. But that’s not true.”
Jerry and Eric will get to take a 10-minute break at the end of each hour when they will check in with Relay officials. Last year, only six of the 16 people who signed up to walk the 24 hours completed the task.
Jerry’s not sure if he’ll attempt 24 hours next year, but he knows he’ll participate in Relay For Life.
“If [doctors] called me tomorrow and said my wife was cured and never had to worry about it again, I would absolutely have the team, and I would walk it every year,” Jerry said.