By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

COLUMBIANA — The Never Ever Give Up Race, created to raise money for a Shelby County High School graduate’s medical bills, raised more than $2,000 in its first year of existence.

The race raised money for Chris Goodwin, who lost a leg after a car accident earlier this year.

Race organizer Jane McDaniel said in an email interview that more than twice the expected number of runners participated in the event.

“We were praying for 20 runners, even though we were planning for about 50,” she said. “Good thing that we did, because we ended up having 44 5K runners.”

McDaniel said she felt “blessed” to be able to help Goodwin and his family, and added that she became close to the family after Goodwin’s accident.

“Throughout the next couple of months (after the accident) and on our Thursday night visits to UAB, I would come to love the Goodwin family more and more,” she said. “I watched as countless people prayed, cried, sang and rallied around the Goodwin family. So I knew I had to do something more.”

She said a friend told her it takes about a year to plan a well-attended 5K race, but in August, she began planning the NEGU Race to happen before the end of the year.

“In the span of four months, we all did it,” she said.

McDaniel said next year’s race will have a different honoree. She plans to put together a committee at the beginning of 2013 to determine who that honoree will be.

The top 10 overall winners in the 2012 race were Terri Sullivan, Mark Glassford and Parrish Argo, Kerry Dale Horton, Belva Durham, Fred Major, Jeff Whipple, Todd Honea, Cindy Ferlitto, AJ Cole, and Rhonda McCormac.

The race was co-directed by Chief John Entrekin of the Fourmile Fire Department. Other event organizers included Mike Atchison, Joanna Entrekin, Darby Oliver, James Fuller, Lisa Buck, Scott Owen, Shannon and Stacey Rorrer, Brenda Seale, Dr. Justin Fogo and Mary Fogo.

The city of Columbiana, the Columbiana Fire Department, the Columbiana Police Department, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and Regional Paramedical Services also helped, along with “countless volunteers,” McDaniel said.

Sponsors of the race included Jack’s, Chelsea Family Dentistry, P.C., Lakeshore Foundation, First Baptist Church of Columbiana, Trak Shak, Piggly Wiggly, Davis Industries, Chelsea Chiropractor and Acupuncture, Owen Designs, Kirkpatrick Concrete, Eagle Construction, Bolton Funeral Home, Shelby County Reporter, Kona Ice, TMH Lifts Bernie’s On Main, Columbiana Public Library, Hairway to Heaven and the law firm Wallace, Ellis, Fowler, Head and Justice.