CENTERBURG – Centerburg Village Councilman Rusty Griffith decided to get into running when the pandemic forced everyone into seclusion. He’d never run a mile let alone a marathon. But the more passionate he became about running, the more he wanted to use it to help benefit others.
In an effort to do that, Griffith recently ran a marathon to raise money for the Centerburg High School boys basketball team so they can buy new away uniforms. His goal was to raise $2,400, but he ended up raising $5,500 total.
“I decided to start running, and it kind of snowballed into an obsession that I had,” Griffith said. “So then, when the whole fundraiser idea came up, [it] seemed like a perfect opportunity to do something good with my newfound passion for other people rather than just me out pounding pavement.”
Griffith has lived in Centerburg all his life. As a proud member of the village and the small, friendly community, he wants to do whatever he can to make sure the village remains that way. When he showed up to the Heart of Ohio Trail to accomplish his marathon, he was surprised and overwhelmed by the number of people who showed up to cheer him on, bring him drinks or run alongside him.
“It was fantastic. Every intersection where the trail crosses a road for the entire 26.2 miles, there was somebody at every stop, every intersection,” Griffith said.
He’s currently president of the Centerburg Athletic Boosters, a nonprofit that does fundraising, and his son, Landon Griffith, is on the basketball team. He’s also coached a lot of the boys on the team when they were younger in other youth sports.
“I’ve been super involved in the majority of these senior boys’ lives, through basketball and being friends with my son… Those boys have been my life since they were little kids, so that’s just something that I knew they needed or I knew they would appreciate,” Griffith said.
The Centerburg boys basketball team usually raises funds at the Hartford Fair where they host a concession stand, but due to COVID-19 they were unable to do it. Griffith began raising funds on his own in July 2021 with small projects and came up with $800 of his own, but having the marathon run helped him exceed his goal.
Rich Porter, Athletic Director at Centerburg High School, praises Griffith as a man he knows he can call whenever he needs something.
“I would say he does a lot for not only the school in the athletic department but he does a lot for the community as well,” Porter said.
Griffith is just one of many people in the Centerburg Village community Porter knows will have his back in the end. In a small village of 1,600 people, they always show up for one another.
“The community really steps up as a whole and helps. In this case (with) a fundraising opportunity, and in other cases when someone is in need, the community rallies together and helps out,” Porter said.
Griffith presented the Centerburg High School Athletic Department with $2,000 to buy the new boys basketball away uniforms. He donated the extra $3,000 to the Heart of Ohio Trail for its new Welcome Center as a way to show his appreciation for the trail where he built his passion for running.
Griffith looks forward to having more opportunities to contribute to Centerburg Village.
“I thought it was a great, great way for me to show the parents and the players and just the community how highly I think of this group and how passionate I am about just the overall well-being and success of our little town and community school,” Griffith said.
