Downers Grove Magazine | Spotlight
THE 2019 BONFIELD EXPRESS STARTING LINE. PHOTO BY DIANNE HILINSKY
Back Up and Running
Downers Grove’s Thanksgiving Day 5K tradition will continue under a new moniker
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cross the nation, Thanksgiving has come to mean food, fun, and football with family and friends, but for more than a decade and a half in Downers Grove, Thanksgiving Day has become synonymous with the Bonfield Express 5K. Thousands have made it an annual tradition to kick off the festivities early and earn their slice of pumpkin pie by running or walking the race’s 3.1-mile course through downtown Downers Grove, Denburn Woods, and other surrounding neighborhoods. Even when the pandemic prevented the large-scale event from taking
BY VALERIE HARDY
place, the Bonfield Express lived on. Last year, a virtual version of the race allowed participants to run or walk five kilometers at the time and location of their choice, report their results electronically, and share race photos to the Bonfield Express Facebook page. However, in July, the Bonfield Express Foundation announced the discontinuation of the annual race after a strong 17-year run. Annette Bonfield – president of the Foundation and wife of the late Jim Bonfield for whom the race was created as a memorial tribute – said she had originally thought the Bonfield DOWNERS GROVE MAGAZINE
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Express “might be able to get to 20 years, but with the pandemic and everything, it was a good time to end. And,” she added with a laugh, “I’m not getting any younger.” Though grateful for all that the Bonfield Express Foundation put into organizing the 5K for so many years, community members of all ages expressed deep disappointment at the news. They envisioned a Thanksgiving Day that would feel incomplete without the Bonfield Express. Continued on next page
