Running for Maggie's Kids

Written by Allison Walsh

For the past five years, Wink McLeod has been living through every parent's worst nightmare, and today the lives of children on the other side of the world are better for it.

When McLeod received word in August of 2005 that her only daughter had been killed in a late night, one-car accident, one of her first thoughts was to thank God for the 19 years she spent as Maggie’s mother, and for the unusually close relationship the two shared. Not long after that, she went to work keeping Maggie’s giving spirit alive in the world.

"Basically, I’m invincible – I've survived the worst thing that can happen to a person," McLeod says. “There have been days I want to crawl in a hole, but that wouldn’t serve any purpose for Maggie's memory."

McLeod holds tight to her faith that she will one day see her daughter again, and in the meantime pours her considerable energy into raising funds for the school she built in Kenya in Maggie’s memory. One such fundraiser, Maggie’s 5K Run, is coming up on Saturday, June 26, at Furman University.

Maggie’s School is located in the desert village of Turkana, in northwest Kenya. McLeod learned of the village through her sister, Connie Cheren, who had done mission work in Africa with Glory Outreach Assembly. GOA founder Bishop David Thagana traveled to Turkana in 2004 and discovered a village steeped in poverty and total illiteracy; the nearest school was a full day’s walk away. He prayed then for a school, a church, and a well.

McLeod says she felt led by God to build a school in Maggie’s memory, and her sister urged her to build it in Turkana. Today nearly 300 Turkana children are served by the school, and 50 adults stay each afternoon to learn to read and write. Most of the children would go hungry without the two meals they receive at school each day, and the new well means they no longer must walk two to three hours for water.

Maggie’s 5K Run earned roughly $9,000 last year, enough to provide uniforms for each student – a need McLeod saw as critical because many of the children were arriving at school naked but, more importantly, because of the unwritten Kenyan rule that children wearing school uniforms are protected from intertribal conflict. Maggie’s kids, as McLeod refers to them, are now decked out in khaki shorts and blue oxford shirts reminiscent of her alma mater, Christ Church Episcopal School.

A fundraising run seemed a natural fit because most people associate Kenya with world-class distance runners, and Maggie was an avid runner. But also because of the special place runners hold in Wink’s heart. “They’re happy, they’re healthy, and they just make me think of Maggie.”

Close to 300 happy, healthy runners turned out for last year’s inaugural Maggie’s Run, quite the coup for a first-time event. While those who know Wink believe nothing to be beyond her grasp, scoring veteran race director John Lehman probably didn’t hurt either.  

 “When Wink does something she goes all into it,” says Emily Edwards, a coworker of Wink’s at Periodontics of Greenville, who agreed with many of last year’s runners that the event was well run.

The Furman course was the initial draw for Christy Stevenson.

“I do love to run at Furman, but I also thought it was a really good cause,” she says. “I was surprised at the number of volunteers and very impressed, especially since it was a first event.”

Susan Ice was inspired to do the race by her husband, who saw a flyer for it at the clubhouse of their Simpsonville neighborhood.

“We were moved by Maggie’s story and we were training at the time, so we wanted to run and put our entry fees toward the school,” Ice says.

Marie Orr, another coworker of McLeod’s, who knew Maggie, believes the school is a true reflection of her spirit.