Race benefitting local family is a success

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The Jager family, of Nocatee, have faced extraordinary struggles the past few months. Collin and Kelci Jager’s two oldest sons, Lucah and Ian, were in a serious golf-cart accident. The accident left Lucah with a broken shoulder, which required three separate surgeries to fix, and left Ian with a head injury. Upon further inspection from doctors, Ian discovered he had a benign brain tumor (unrelated to the accident) which also required surgery to remove.

Right as the family of six were recovering from the trauma of the accident, Collin began to feel ill. He visited doctors, who ran dozens of tests, and diagnosed him with a very rare and very aggressive type of leukemia known as ALL.

The pandemic made the situation ever worse for the family, as they had to undergo rounds of treatment with extreme caution, and struggled to run their family-operated business.

Luckily, the Jagers' neighbor and close friend Rosario Arteaga knew that she wanted to find a way to help in any way she could.

“COVID-19 was full-blow; no one could truly support this family because the best thing we could all do was to stay away from them,” Arteaga said.

Arteaga, with the help of other volunteers and a company known as Its Your Race, organized a Lace Up For Collin 5k race on May 8, just before Mother’s Day. Arteaga said they decided on hosting a race because they needed to find an event that could be safety held outside, with the pandemic in mind, and because of Collin’s love of outdoor activities such as sports and fishing.

“We decided to find a way to show [the Jagers] that we were still there, even though we could not be there physically,” she said.

Over 250 participants showed up to the race, which was hosted in Nocatee, along with a boatload of volunteers and sponsors. Arteaga said that the goal was to raise around $4-5k for the Jager family, and they easily surpassed that goal. All money fundraised from the race will go directly towards supporting the Jager family as Collin undergoes the next few years of chemotherapy and possible stem cell transplant options.

The top three overall winners in the race were Bob Massaglia with a time of 18:01, Charlie Johnson with a time of 18:19, and Stacy Voils with a time of 20:09.

Arteaga said that they plan to make the Lace Up For Collin race an annual event, so that they can keep supporting the Jager family for however long it takes.