On December 21, the eighth annual Egg Nog Jog was filled with runners ready to  sprint (or leisurely jog) their way to the finish line. With tables of egg nog, a huge candy cane blow up arch, and triangle streamers lining the course, runners endured cold temperatures to raise money and toys for a good cause.

The Egg Nog Jog is a two-mile race around the Linganore High School grounds; however, there is one holiday catch. Every quarter mile, runners are challenged to drink some Eggnog at each station. In order to participate in the race, participants are asked to make a donation in either the form of a toy/game for the Quentin Ingram Toy Drive or the monetary donation to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS) help fund future research of blood diseases to prevent another death like Quentin Ingram’s.

LLS stands for Leukemia Lymphoma Society, which is the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. Their mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

“It was so fun to do and not competitive at all. It’s honestly just a great way to bring our community together at such an important time of the year and for such an important cause: raising awareness for childhood cancer. After participating this year, I would definitely want to come to future races. It hits very close to home at Linganore as we’ve had many students go through childhood cancer, including Quentin Ingram. It’s very important that we should continue events like this to support these people in our community,” said junior Elizabeth Rajnik

This year was Rajnik’s first year participating in the annual Eggnog Jog.

The donation total for the race by December 21 was at $6,362 which is $1,657 short of the goal was $8,019. The due date for donations is December 31. Anyone can donate at the Quentin Egg Nog Jog website.

“Everyone was in a good mood and had smiles on their faces. People were excited to run and were very generous in their donations to those to had childhood cancer. I really had a lot of fun and would enjoy going to the race again in the future,” said junior Anna Choudary

Sophomores Jack Sears and Alex Kullgren tied for first place in this year’s race.  For the rest of the results, visit the Quentin Egg Nog Jog Website. Olivia Geissler finished first for the women.

“I loved sharing the win with my teammate Alex. We both had a lot of fun! I really think that the Eggnog Jog is a great way for our community to come together and donate toys and funds to help bring joy to children in the hospital,” said Sears.

In 2004, Quentin Ingram who was a future Lancer and a member of the Frederick community, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and died after fighting the disease in the Children’s Center at Johns Hopkins.

Most of his free time in the hospital was spent in the playroom with the toys that they had there. This playroom was disappointing to Quentin because there is no place like home, so he often complained of the playroom “needing better toys.”  In Quentin’s honor, the community started the Quentin Ingram Toy Drive asking for donations of toys and games to help fulfill Quentin’s request for better toys.

The event was more somber than usual because Lily Weaver, was a well-known member of the Class of 2019,  passed away one day earlier after fighting an eight-year battle with Ewing’s’ Sarcoma. Weaver was an advocate for childhood cancer research and even spoke in Washington, D.C. to raise more awareness on treatments for childhood cancer through programs like Truth 365 and Arms Wide Open.

Events like the Egg Nog Jog fundraiser bring much-needed funds to research a solution to childhood cancer.