Gameball Run returns this week

The second annual Gameball Run is Thursday and Friday.

The event begins Feb. 6 with members of the Morton High School boys basketball team taking off from MHS and dribbling a basketball to the front doors of the Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria.

On game night the next day vs. Pekin, suggested admittance into the Mid-Illini Conference contest is through a Children's Hospital Gameball Run T-shirt, which costs $10.

T-shirts will be sold at all District 709 schools and at MHS prior to and on Feb. 7. One-hundred percent of the proceeds go to CHOI.

The Gameball check presentation, sponsor and miracle kid celebrations will take place prior to the tip-off.

The title sponsor is Moron Community Unit District 709.

Fort Transfer is the Gameball Run run sponsor.

Potterdome sponsors include: Cloyd Plumbing, Core Construction, Morton Rotary/MHS Interact clubs, MHS basketball team, A Perfect Promotion, MHS Booster Club, Mike Murphy Ford and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Each school in the district has a Miracle family that represents their school as well as the thousands of Morton patients each year that are cared for at Children's Hospital of Illinois.

The 2014 Miracle families are:

• The Koch family — Morton High School

• The Stephens family — Morton Junior High School

• The White family — Grundy Elementary

• The Snyder family — Lincoln Elementary

• The Bradford family — Lettie Brown Elementary

• The Marlott family — Jefferson Elementary.

The first Gameball Run, which also included Dunlap, generated more than $20,000.

For more information or to make a donation, log-on to www.childrenshospitalofillinoisfoundation.org/gameball, or call 566.5666.

The Morton community donates more than $200,000 annually to the Children's Hospital of Illinois through individual/family gifts.