A day at the races boosts Kathy Orr memorial fund By Dennis Spaeth
Coming around the last turn, No. 8 seemed buried in the pack as the horses bounded toward the end of "A Day at the Races," the inaugural fund-raising event for the Kathy Orr Memorial Fund.
No. 8, or Nasty Bob to his friends in the stands, was nowhere to be seen.
Though the Oct. 25 fund-raising event at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero, Ill., brought the fund to nearly $2,700, for a moment there, waiting for Nasty Bob, it seemed the day would end on a down note. At least, that is, for a few of the 80 or so family members, friends and old college cohorts who turned out in honor of Kathy Orr-McDonald, a former Northern Star editor who died in 1997 at age 34.
Lacking any real talent for picking horses, a few of those in attendance began looking for promising names. In the eighth race, for instance, Star Searcher seemed like a natural. The small group of Northern Star alums pooled their money, agreed to donate the winnings to the K.O. fund and placed a $10 bet on No. 10 across the board (to win, place or show). Star Searcher hung on for third place. Just like that, another $71 for the K.O. fund.
At that point, the method seemed infinitely more scientific than that employed by free-lance writer and Star alum Janyce Hamilton, who met with early success by following the advice of "some woman in the bathroom."
For the ninth race, the choice came down to Sister Righteous or Charming Princess. Former Star editor Phil Dabney (now an attorney in Las Vegas) flipped a coin. A $10 bet was placed across the board on Sister Righteous.
Charming Princess came in third. Sister Righteous wasn't.
By the 10th and final race, most were out of money. But Star alum Sharyl Holtzman (now a free-lance writer and personal chef) had a hunch and scratched together enough to place one last bet: $10 on Nasty Bob to win.
Don't ask. Suffice to say there were a few choice words for Bob as the horses made their way around the track.
Then, as the horses headed down the stretch, the announcer blared, "finishing with a flourish is Nasty Bob." And, just like that, another $50 for the K.O. fund.
Not enough for retirement, granted, but all together the event brought the fund nearly a quarter of the way to its goal of $12,500, which will be used to establish an annual $500 Northern Star scholarship, the Kathy Orr Memorial Award for Editorial Excellence.
Still, as Kathy's mother Noreen Orr observed after the final race, "we have a long way to go."
For details on the next fund-raising event or the planned scholarship, check out the Kathy Orr Memorial Fund Web site.
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