Run through parks to help area soldiers

Jogged through your local parks lately, Itasca residents? Saturday morning you can cruise through five of them and help wounded soldiers along the way.

At 9 a.m. Saturday, the inaugural 5K-Five Parks Family Run/Walk, sponsored by the Itasca Knights of Columbus and the Itasca Park District, will kick off at Walnut and Grove streets.

This is considered a multi-terrain course that will take runners past Washington Park, through Songbird Slough in the DuPage Country Forest Preserve, followed by a serene pass through the Spring Brook Nature Center, where participants will walk or run along the wooden boardwalk.

Runners will then head over Kimball Hill through the nature center arboretum along the marsh trail and around the Itasca Water Park before crossing the footbridge to the finish line back at Usher Park.

The $25 registration fee will benefit SALUTE, Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting service members and their families and promoting awareness of the many challenges they face.

Salute's Nightingale Program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago provides financial assistance to local wounded soldiers returning home from war.

"Today when soldiers return home, they face more financial difficulties than ever before," said Mike Cummins, past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus. "They need our help to get back up on their feet."

If you go

What: Itasca 5K-Five Parks Run/Walk, sponsored by the local park district and Knights of Columbus to raise money for a veterans support group

Where: Race begins at the intersection of Walnut and Grove streets and continues through five village parks

When: 9 a.m. Saturday

Cost: $25; register online www.saluteinc.org