Western Illinois University Honoring Fallen Soldiers With Fallen Soldiers 5K Saturday
Western Illinois University will honor members of the armed forces, along with two of its own fallen soldiers, Capt. Derek Dobogai and Lt. Col. Robert Baldwin, Saturday, Oct. 30 as part of the 10th annual Fallen Soldiers 5K Run/Walk. The event will begin with a ceremony at 8:30 
a.m. at Hanson Field, with the race beginning at 9 a.m. in front of Western Hall on University Drive. For those who cannot attend, the ceremony will be live-streamed on the Fallen Soldier Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FallenSoldiersWIU.
Registration is $35 for the in-person race and $38.45 for the virtual race fee. WIU student registration is $10 through race day. Race sponsors include the WIU Foundation, Dave and Jackie Thompson, Refreshment Services Pepsi of Macomb, Hy-Vee of Macomb, Engraving by Lin, Prairie Farms and Advanced Rehab of Macomb.
Since 2012, the WIU Fallen Soldiers 5K Run/Walk has raised approximately $156,000 for the WIU Fallen Soldiers’ Scholarship Fund, which honors the two alumni who were killed in the line of duty. Dobogai, who graduated from Western in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and justice administration, was among the 14 U.S. soldiers aboard a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed Aug. 22, 2007 in northern Iraq. Baldwin, who earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from WIU in 1993, was killed Sept. 21, 2010, when his Blackhawk UH-60 helicopter carrying international troops crashed during combat operations in the Zabul province of Afghanistan.
For more information or to register, visit wiu.edu/fallensoldiers or email fallensoldiers5k@wiu.edu.
