On Friday, the University of Central Florida’s Phi Delta Theta fraternity held a 5k on Memory Mall called “Run for Rad”, to help raise money for their brother, Radley Gillis.
Gillis’ fraternity brother, Kevin Ruane came up with the idea for the race. Ruane remembers participating in a 5k with Gillis in the very same location just over a year ago.
“I actually ran a 5k in this exact location with Radley,” Ruane said. “He actually came out, had not run a 5k, and I have run cross country my whole life. I looked at him and asked him if he has ever run a race, he said no. The kid came out here and won. It was pretty inspiring at the time, and now looking back on it, it’s extremely inspiring.”
Running this race, and raising money to help Gillis, has meant a lot to a lot of people. This tragedy has brought the Greek life and UCF communities together around a common goal, helping Gillis.
“It just speaks volumes about the type of person Radley is,” Ruane said. “He could bring a bunch of different people together, set aside their differences, and come together as one supporting the same cause.”
After the race, Gillis’ pledge brother Carter Wilson, recalled his favorite memory of him and Gillis.
“When we were pledging, we did the Zeta Lip Sync dances, he would just crush it every practice,” Wilson said.”He loved doing backflips, he was really good at doing backflips, and he kept pressing the coaches over and over just to let him do a back flip in the show. They let him do it, and he killed it!”
In total, 85 people came out and ran for Gillis, and Phi Delt raised $3500. This money will go directly to Gillis and his family to help pay for Gillis’ medical bills.
As Knight News previously reported, Gillis was involved in an incapacitating motorcycle accident on April 4. Since then, the UCF community has rallied around him. To date, Gillis’ GoFundMe account has raised $94518.
