St. Jude Charity Walk
Written by Cole Loiacano on October 2, 2025
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The St. Jude’s Walk is coming back to Bloomington-Normal. The event aims to raise $300,000 or more for St. Jude patients and research.
The St. Jude Walk is a nationwide event that brings in a huge amount of support for the organization. This will be Megan Fitzgerald’s fourth year spearheading the event in Bloomington-Normal.
“It started because you see so many walks in the area, and they’re just such a great way to get the community involved and just kind of bring people together for a common cause,” Fitzgerald said. “It is low impact, easy entry for so for people of all ages.”
Fitzgerald says one of the most important things the event aims to do is create an impact within the local community.
“Sharing a Facebook post or sharing something on Instagram, just getting that word and awareness out, especially on college campuses, is so crucial,” Fitzgerald said. “This is a message that is very near and dear to so many people’s hearts, and just helping raise awareness is extremely important.”
Every year the event has been hosted, participants have blown goals out of the water, Fitzgerald said.
“I’m hoping to see over 900 people there; this is the largest event that we have for St. Jude within Bloomington-Normal, in terms of participant size and the fundraising dollars for a single event,” Fitzgerald said.
Although the event already hit the $300,000 goal, ahead of the walk, it is not what Fitzgerald says is most important for success.
“It’s just the people in the stories that we get to hear is what makes it a success, we’re very excited and ecstatic about the funds that we’re raising, but also it’s about the stories that we take away from these days,” Fitzgerald said. “We have a patient speaker, who speaks at it every year, and just the takeaways from those are the most important thing.”
This year, the St. Jude Walk will take place Saturday, Oct. 4, and begins at 7 a.m. at Illinois Wesleyan University.
