5K In Memory Of Manhattan Teen Set For August, Registration Open

MANHATTAN, IL — The third annual 5K run/walk in memory of a Manhattan teen and Lincoln-Way West student is set to return to Round Barn Farm in August.

Jog for Jackson was started in 2020 to honor Jackson Lewis, who died by suicide in June 2020. Lewis was 15 years old when he took his own life.

Lewis was active in sports, and very social. In junior high, he ran track and cross country. He played soccer as a freshman at West. The 5K was started by friend Emmett Thompson, who remembered time spent running alongside Lewis at the iconic Manhattan farm.

Thompson and Jackson had run cross country together in junior high, where Thompson was older than Jackson, but they pulled Jackson up a level to run with them, "because he was good," Thompson said. The Round Barn Farm hosted their team's home meets, he said.

"It just was a perfect kind of way to remember him," Thompson previously told Patch, of starting the 5K.

Since his death, Lewis' family and Thompson are continuing efforts to memorialize him in the New Lenox and Manhattan communities, with both the 5K and the creation of the Jackson Lewis Foundation scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to two Lincoln-Way West graduating seniors each year.

Thompson has also helped spearhead the creation of the Jackson Lewis Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit aimed at helping to raise awareness for and help combat suicide in kids 18 years and younger. It's based on three pillars: awareness, education and research. The foundation will focus on kids with mental health issues, offering outreach programs with featured speakers at area schools.

All proceeds from the 5K will go to the foundation.

Registration is $25 per person and can be done online. Deadline to register is July 22. Those registered before the deadline will receive a race shirt and race wristband.

Packet pick-up is Friday, August 4 from 3 to 7 p.m. at Manhattan Village Hall, 260 Market Place. The 5k will take place Saturday, August 5 at 8 a.m. at Round Barn Farm, 24115 S. US 52, in Manhattan.