Proceeds from the fifth annual 5K road race sponsored by the MIT Chapter of Chi Phi will go to the rehabilitation hospital where fraternity brother Josiah Seale is recovering from severe head and leg injuries suffered in an automobile accident. The race is scheduled for Saturday, April 8.
While on his way to a ski trip in Lake Placid, NY, in January, Mr. Seale, a sophomore from Macon, GA, was a passenger in a car struck by another driver. After he came out of a four-day coma at a hospital in Burlington, VT, he was moved to the Shepherd Center, a hospital in Atlanta that specializes in spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury and other neuromuscular disorders. Mr. Seale, whose rehabilitation is progressing well, requested that road race proceeds be donated to the acquired brain injury program at the Shepherd Center.
"Josiah puts others, his friends especially, above himself," said Edward Essey, a junior in electrical engineering and computer science, Chi Phi brother and close friend of Mr. Seale. "There have been times when Josiah was leaving the house to make a meeting and he noticed that something was bothering me. He would stop what he was doing, and take time out to stroll around Boston with me and chat -- we always just strolled around Boston when we had things to talk about. It's really uplifting to know that someone puts you first."
Mr. Seale, who is majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, is being tutored by a Georgia Tech math professor and will audit differential equations and political philosophy classes at Georgia Tech. He plans to return to MIT in the fall.
Chi Phi active members and alumni have raised more than $1,200 to help pay Josiah's medical expenses, starting with a fund-raiser at the annual initiation banquet on February 26.
The April 8 race will start at 11am at Massachusetts Avenue and Amherst Street. Prizes will be awarded to runners in several categories. The registration fee is $15. Free T-shirts are guaranteed to those who preregister if payment is received by April 3. Registration forms are available at the Public Service Center in Rm W20-549. Runners may also register online or on race day at 10am on Kresge Oval in front of the Stratton Student Center.
Previous races have benefitted the Nature Conservancy.
Associate Dean Neal Dorow has also chosen Mr. Seale's family as his official charity in the Alpha Phi Omega "Big Screw" contest April 3-7. Voting is done by donation -- a penny a vote. All MIT faculty and staff are eligible to be official candidates. The winner receives a two-and-a-half-foot-long left-handed wood screw made of aluminum, engraved with the names of past winners.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 29, 2000.
