ST. GEORGE — St. George residents are organizing a 5K run to raise money in support of Tia Stokes and her family as she has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Stokes, founder of the dance group Kalamity and Kaos, was a St. George resident while her husband Andy was involved in high school football as the head coach at Dixie High School.
The Together For Tia 5K Fun Run will be held at the Crosby Family Confluence Park in the morning on Aug. 22 from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. The race will be on the back trails with the winner receiving shoes. The fastest group of six will win gift cards, all courtesy of the St. George Running Center.
Stokes and her dance group have helped over 50 families and raised nearly $600,000. Now, a group of St. George residents want to help give back to the Stokes family that gave so much to the community.
“I went through my whole high school career, I played a lot of sports and he (Andy Stokes) was my coach,” Payden Harrah, one of the organizers and former Dixie high football player said. “I probably went to 10 fundraisers that Kalamity and Kaos put on with my football team just to be supportive. When I heard that she had cancer, I really felt obligated to do something. We have this whole community here that I know loves them.”
Harrah spoke highly of his former head coach and his family, mentioning that their family helped him through some trouble in high school.
“When I was in high school, they really helped me out of a lot of stuff so now giving back after seeing them do so much, just being able to even give them one month of mortgage to help them out would mean the world,” Harrah said.
As for why they are organizing the 5K, Harrah reinforced that the community knows that they are good people. He was happy to see that people were supportive of the Stokes, both in Southern Utah and Northern Utah, where the Stokes family now reside.
“I can’t even explain how much the community, especially up north and down here, really showed up for them,” Harrah said. “Coming out for the 5K is the least we can do for these people, they definitely deserve it.”
You can register for the 5K run here and read more about Tia Stokes here.
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