HUGHES COUNTY, S.D. (KELO) — Never mind all the miles and the hills and the heat; runners with The 437 Project press on. They’re crossing South Dakota in a relay on foot from the Wyoming border to the Iowa border.
“I’ve had three blood blisters so far, and a few that have had to be drained,” runner Dawn Marie Johnson of Sioux Falls said. “So we have been taping them up and hitting the road after a few drainings.”
Nevertheless, Johnson presses on. She’s a descendant of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and serves on the Sioux Falls School Board, and this identity fuels her running.
“I have a list of names that I have written out in my journal, and it’s been amazing to see how many people have come forward with other names of folks that I know that I didn’t even know were suffering with mental health,” Johnson said.
The 437 Project raises money for exactly that.
“It just goes to show, this advocacy piece and awareness is huge, but especially for our youth and then my Native relatives,” Johnson said. “It’s important to uplift and encourage them to seek help.”
Runner Carmen Peterson of Philip, S.D. has this mission on her mind as well.
“Kept me going on this run, and I think that will continue to be the case throughout as we do our next few legs over the next couple of days,” Peterson said.
It’s personal for her, too.
“I am out here because like so many people, I’ve lost family to suicide,” Peterson said. “I’ve had family attempt suicide, lots of people close to me who have lost people close to them.”
The miles bring their challenges, from the hot sun to the landscape’s rolling hills and the familiar South Dakota breeze.
“It was pretty windy,” runner Betsy Schuster of the Hartford, S.D. area said. “The first part was steady uphill but then we leveled out a little bit, but the wind did help a little bit when it wasn’t cross-wind. But we got through it.”
But the runners are rising to this occasion.
“I think that was the fastest I’ve ran in 10 years,” Schuster said.
Along with Schuster, Peterson and Johnson, KELOLAND’s Dan Santella is one of The 437 Project’s runners in 2024. As of Friday evening, he has completed two of his five legs.
