'Fight Like A Girl' 5K run helps grant special wishes

Light rain was falling as the horn blew and the race began.

Runners started at the parking entrance to Johnston Memorial Park, went up Memorial Avenue, down Atwood, right onto Hartford and then back into the park and across the starting line. Then they started around again.

And the rains got heavier. On they ran, step after step, mile after mile, until – faces and bodies covered with water – they entered the park and crossed the finish line completing the three-mile run.

The runners were taking part in the “Fight Like A Girl” fundraiser organized by Christina Rondeau of Rondeau’s Kickboxing in Johnston on Saturday, April 26. The event, one of several held during the year, raised money through entry fees and the sale of t-shirts, hats, cups and other items.

All the money goes to making a wish come true for a woman suffering from cancer, a life-changing accident, domestic violence or some other tragedy.

Rondeau said organizers are now raising money for the wishes of three women, and one is about to get her wish. She is 30 years old and has had a disability since she was 14. She has a shunt in her brain and is in poor physical health. The woman has always wanted to touch a dolphin, so Rondeau said, “We got her the next best thing. We are sending her to Mystic Aquarium to meet a Beluga whale. She’ll be dressed in a wetsuit and get into the water with the whale and get close enough to touch. Then she will go to Mystic Pizza, and we’re giving her gas money. She’s going to have food, gas and a beautiful day at Mystic Aquarium.”

Another of the women has terminal brain and lung cancer and wishes for a night in Newport with her husband, and the third woman has breast and liver cancer and wishes for a night of camping with her husband and son at Niagara Falls. Saturday’s event raised about $1,000 to help pay for those wishes.

Rondeau said her wish, and the wish of people that work on these events, is “to bring a happy memory, happy distraction, to these women and give them something to look forward to.”