The community will come together Saturday morning at Spring Hill Christmas Tree Farm to raise money for the Dylan Reid Faircloth The First Memorial Cross Country Scholarship.

The occasion is the Epic 5,000-meter, 3.1-mile Challenge, which gets underway at 8 a.m. It will be followed by the Southwest Georgia Middle School Cross-Country Championship Run at 9:30 a.m.

The scholarship, named in honor and memory of a Bearcats cross-country runner and 2010 Bainbridge High School graduate who tragically lost his life in an automobile accident, will go each year to a BHS senior runner to help with college.

The late honoree’s mother, Mrs. June Faircloth, said the Epic 5K Challenge will honor Dylan’s memory and his love for cross-country running, while enabling a fellow teammate to advance his or her education.

A special guest for Saturday’s Epic 5K Challenge will be former Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback, former assistant football coach on Warner Robins High School Demons national championship teams in 1976 and 1981, and former Northside Warner Robins High School Eagles head football coach Stan Gann.

Dylan was an organ donor and coach Gann, who lives in Kathleen, Ga., received his heart.

Bearcats and Lady Cats cross-country coach Mandi O’Mara emphasized that the Challenge is a community-wide event.

“There will be five-person teams, and each team member must be of the same gender,” she said.

The only exception is that there can be a female on a male team, but it will be counted as a male team even if only one female is on the team, O’Mara said.

Each team must have a name, a team captain and an identifying characteristic, such as team shirts, bandanas and face paint, that separates them from other teams. Entry fee is $50 per team.

Coach O’Mara further explained that each runner will receive the same number of points as their place in the race.

“After all five members of the team finish, we will add all of their finish places together to get their team score,” she said. “The team with the lowest score will be the winner. The overall male and female winning teams will receive awards.”