Published: April 28, 2008 09:45 am            

Educators form team Bulldog to honor OKC bombing victims

Linda Curry will never forget.

She was teaching pre-kindergarten at Cleveland Bailey Elementary School on that fateful day in 1995 when the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building shook her school.

Her brother-in-law, Steve Curry, who worked in the federal building, was killed in the blast.

On Sunday, Curry, who still teaches in that same classroom, will remember again the lives of the 168 killed in the bombing.

Five of Curry’s co-workers will join her in the Memorial Marathon, honoring the bombing victims. Anita Friend, Brandi Schreiber, Danielle Schroeder, Tyler Schardt and Neal Johnson will each run a portion of the 26.5-mile marathon. Curry, an unofficial member of the Cleveland Bailey Bulldogs, will cheer from the sidelines.

“Having worked with Mrs. Curry as long as I have, it means a lot to me,” Friend said.

The Cleveland Bailey Bulldogs were in high spirits as they anticipated Sunday’s marathon which begins at 6:30 a.m.

“We got new watches,” Friend said Thursday.

“We’re becoming official,” Schreiber added.

Schroeder, Friend and Schreiber ran together three times a week at Joe B. Barnes Regional Park to prepare for the race. They also recently took part in the Redbud Classic April 1, a 5K run that benefits a different charity each year. They run to support Curry and honor the victims of the bombing, but were initially encouraged to get involved by a parent, Sarah Capps.

“She’s been kind of going with the girls and the guys are just gifted,” Schreiber said.

Schardt, a gym teacher, will run the longest stretch of the marathon — seven miles.

Johnson, the school’s principal, said he has been training by running three miles at a time. He hopes to run his six-mile stretch in an hour. He can run one mile in 10 minutes, he said.

The team will assemble at 5 a.m. Sunday morning. Though Curry will not run in the marathon, she and her husband, Johnny, will be at the 5:30 a.m. prayer service held at the survivor tree, which survived the bombing.

Curry, who has attended numerous remembrances, said that she was pleased when the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum was built.

“Sunrise and sunset both are the real neat times to be there,” she said.

        

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