Sweating in the Saturday sun

Hundreds spent their Saturday morning squinting, stepping and sweating under the sunshine for the 10th Annual Cedar Rapids Fire Department Memorial 5K Race/Walk at Prairie High School.

The influence of the fire department could be clearly felt, between the uniforms, shirts and fire vehicles dotting the finish line.

“I did good,” Gabe Burkle, 6, said. “I ran the whole way. I'm tired.” Burkle is the son of a Cedar Rapids firefighter.

“It's great, the kids love it and the adults love it, too,” said Heidi Burkle, Gabe's mother. “I've run it for the past four or five years. So have the kids when they've been around.”

The organization uses the money raised from Saturday's even to donate the funds to families that have lost a firefighter. Over the last two years, the groups said they offered $6,000 to families.