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Most members at the Bakersfield South Rotary Club could not run for their life, but when it comes to raising money for a good cause, there’s no faster moving feet in town. One of the club’s most popular fundraising events is the Annual Ron Fontaine Memorial Dollars for Scholars Run.
 
The event, also known as the Ron’s Run for short, is expected to attract at least 300 runners this year. The race, which will be held Saturday at the California Living Museum, includes a 5K, 10K and a one-mile walk. Runners are expected to sign up as early as 7 a.m. and hit the dust by 8:30 a.m.
 
According to Eric Bradshaw, Ron’s Run fundraising chair, this year’s goal is to raise $28,000 and attract more than 300 runners and walkers. He said last year the club raised over $22,000 – almost 50 percent increase over the previous year – and it had 250 participants. After paying the event costs, the organizations awarded $15,000 to three high school students.
 
“The main goal of Ron’s Run is specific and unique, but is also far-reaching.  Ron’s Run remains the means by which Bakersfield South Rotary raises funds to award scholarships to college-bound students at South, Ridgeview and Stockdale high schools,” he said.
 
Bradshaw said that a portion of Ron’s Run proceeds also go to the Bakersfield South Rotary Club Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit organization, as an endowment for the continuing service projects of the Bakersfield South Rotary Club. Those projects have historically included polio eradication and clean water projects worldwide, Spanish-English dictionaries for third graders, books for elementary teachers’ classroom libraries, adult literacy, scholarships for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp in Ojai, co-sponsoring the Rotary-Kern High School District Business Leadership and Ethics Conference, support for the Salvation Army and Kern Bridges Youth Homes, Toys for Tots, youth soccer teams, and more.
 
The run, which is on its eighth year, was the brain child of Ron Fontaine, a history teacher at South High School who later joined the administration at the Kern High School District.
 
“He had a passion for helping students and was an all-around great guy and active member of Bakersfield South Rotary,” Bradshaw recalled. “He was also a serious runner.”

Bradshaw said Ron, combining his own interests in students and passion for running, in 1997 conceived the 5K-10K “fun run”—originally known as the “Dollars for Scholars Fun Run”—as a way of supplementing other fundraising activities in which the club was involved.  The specific purpose of the run was to award scholarships to college-bound students at the high schools in which Bakersfield South Rotary sponsors Interact clubs (South, Stockdale and Ridgeview high schools).

Ron died in June 2001 during a run, just after he retired. In honor of his memory and his service, the run was re-named “The Ron Fontaine Memorial Dollars for Scholars Run,” or “Ron’s Run” for short. 

The Bakersfield South Rotary Club has been awarding scholarships since it was chartered in 1963. Just in the past 10 years alone, the organization has awarded more than $90,000 to over 150 students.