Earth Day 5K celebrates life of Melissa Schultz
Nora Davis, left, Olivia Kelly and Lila Wright finish the 2018 Melissa Schultz Memorial Earth Day 5K walk/run.
Melissa Schultz was a chemistry professor at the College of Wooster whose life was tragically cut short in an automobile accident in Wooster in 2015, leaving her husband Brett Wright and children, Lila, Teddy and Leo, as well as many friends and colleagues.
Her legacy is celebrated annually with the Melissa Schultz Memorial Earth Day 5K, which will take place this year on Saturday, April 13 at 9 a.m. at the College of Wooster.
The 5k is an untimed run or walk through the college campus. It is free and family-friendly for participants of all ages and abilities. While participation in the 5k is free, donations are accepted for the Melissa Schultz Nature Preserve, located off Route 585 behind the Montessori School, according to Sarah Davis, College of Wooster volleyball coach and 5k organizer.
“Melissa was so beloved and well respected at the college and in the community that we wanted to do something to remember her,” Davis said. “Melissa was a community builder, environmentalist, chemist, teacher, mother, wife, runner and friend who is dearly missed. In 2015 we thought the 5k would be a way to help memorialize her and aid in the healing for friends, family, colleagues and students.”
Davis said the date chosen for the event seemed fitting because it was close to Schultz’s birthday and Earth Day.
“Melissa was an avid environmentalist who was doing lots of research at the time of her passing,” Davis said. “She also had just been in the process of getting the land for the nature preserve.”
Dedicated in 2016, the Melissa Schultz Nature Preserve encompasses 6 acres of woods and meadow with a ravine and creek that feed into Little Apple Creek. It memorializes Schultz, who Davis said was an amazing scientist, educator, friend and mother who was taken tragically in February 2015.
The property is located on Akron Road between the Montessori School of Wooster and PNC Park (formerly Gerstenslager Park) with an entrance off the park. The College of Wooster, which owns the property, has granted the Montessori School of Wooster long-term use of the property as a nature preserve.
Davis said the run is another way to memorialize Schultz and is "good exercise in a fun event."
“We have between two and three hundred participants each year,” Davis said.
Davis said the event has never had to be cancelled due to unfavorable weather. “There was one year, though, that it was raining all day before and early in the morning, but the clouds opened up and the sun came out just as we started the race. We took that as a kind of sign that Melissa was with us,” she said.
Davis said the run starts outside Severance Hall on the academic quad and skirts the outskirts of the campus, finishing through the arch of Kauke Hall. While the run is stroller friendly, including pets is not encouraged.
In keeping with the environmental theme, environmental facts are posted along the route of the run as well as motivational ones.
“We use recycled materials for all the signage, and Melissa’s favorite music plays throughout the course,” Davis said.
Davis said Ryan Ozar is the disc jockey, and many volunteers — such as the Chemistry Club, the campus Greenhouse organization, faculty, friends and the Wrights — all come together to make the run a success.
Davis said Mohican Gardens hands out plants to the participants at the finish line and that the event is very grateful for the support of the college.
Free parking for the event is available in the lots at the corners of Bever and Henrietta streets.
Participants should arrive about 15 minutes early for registration.