The 31st annual St Jude Memphis to Peoria Runners Caravan drove out of Peoria about 7:30 this morning. The Caravan of 23 motor homes is supported by a half dozen vans and trucks that are making their way to the St Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis.  The 170 runners will start their run home tomorrow at noon after touring the hospital. Peoria Sheriff Mike McCoy helped create the fundraiser. He says last year the run and accompanying telethon raised $2.8 million.
“This is not a running event. This is a fundraising event, and so every runner here has raised a minimum of 3000 dollars and the average is about 4800 bucks, McCoy says. “When you couple everything together we’re going to come back saturday night. We’re going to be excited and we’re going to raise a lot of money for St Jude.”   

McCoy says the money raised for the St Jude Midwest Affiliate and the St Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis has increased the healthy outcomes of childhood cancer from four percent to more than 80 percent.  
The St Jude run wraps up with the runners return and a Telethon on WEEK T-V Saturday evening.