After the loss of librarian Joe Sullivan, the Raider community grieved, and many had different ways of approaching this grief. Government teacher Aaron Faver planned on participating in the annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, and the passing of Sullivan gave Faver the “mission” to dedicate the run to his long-time friend and to raise money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (https://themmrf.org/get-involved/donate-to-the-mmrf/).

Faver began to raise money in March, with the goal of raising $2,000. Although this goal proved more than possible, with a total of $2,025 being raised, Faver said he initially was not certain if the goal would be reached.

“I high-barred it and thought ‘surely, people will want to support, especially because we have enough support in the community’ and people came through,” Faver said.

Faver came well prepared to his half-marathon run in honor of Sullivan, and finished in two hours and 30 minutes. His decision to run for Sullivan came to him during his grieving process, because it “just felt like the right thing to do.”

“I was grieving, and so many people in the community were grieving,” Faver said. “The run became about something else, it was about something more. I contacted his family and asked where they would want the money to go.”

This was Faver’s first marathon, where he proudly donned a “For Sully” T-shirt, and he said amongst the things he did not expect, the size of the crowd was one of them.

“I’ve never run a marathon before so I had no earthly idea what to expect,” Faver said. “It’s really easy to keep up pace when there’s so many people running, not only beside you, but with you and behind you and people are on the sides supporting you.”

Although Faver did not run a full marathon, he ran 11-minute miles all the way through. Faver said that the first place finisher for the full length marathon finished in 2 hours and 33 minutes, running twice the distance in only 3 minutes longer than Faver.

“It was a really incredible experience,” Faver said. “I’m glad that we were able to raise the money, and I am glad that I was able to honor my friend.”