LNE cross country team races to help graffiti victim

Cross country runners aren’t usually encouraged to take a 45-minute break in the middle of a workout. On Sept. 21, the coaches for Lincoln Northeast High School made an exception.

The Northeast team was about halfway through that day’s run when a few of them noticed a homeowner along the MoPac Trail near 40th Street trying to scrub graffiti off the side of her home. They didn’t hesitate - they stopped and started to help. First five of them, then 10, then pretty soon it was 15 runners chipping in.

“We all were like, ‘We should help her,’” said one of the runners, Jayden, a 9th-grader. “Then it got pretty crowded - there was only so much wall to clean.”

The homeowner happened to be a kindergarten teacher from Fredstrom Elementary School, Sara Dolezal.

“I just want to personally thank all the Northeast cross country members for their kind gesture,” she said. “They did something for the sheer satisfaction of helping others, not because they were going to get something out of it.”

The team spent about 45 minutes helping Dolezal, one of nine homeowners in the neighborhood who woke up to derogatory graffiti sprayed on their property.

“This is what student-athletes that are held to higher standards can do,” said Northeast Head Coach John Snoozy.

 

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