Martha Robirds, the oldest participant crossing the finish line Saturday during the fourth annual Graveyard Gallop in Powell, was proud of her commitment to health and fitness. Yet, she was shy about sharing her age.

“Don’t you dare put my age in the paper,” she warned with the wag of a finger.

She and her younger friend Julie Fulton, 84, were participating in their second Gallop, honoring their good friend Jim Beavers, who passed away on Nov. 1, 2021 at the age of 74. Beavers was a popular member of the Homesteader Museum Board of Directors and was elected to the Crown Hill Cemetery Board for many years.

After his death, friend and colleague Michela Morrissey, who worked with Beavers at the museum and is now the assistant registrar at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, decided she too wanted to honor her friend. Organizing the event, which proceeded past the cemetery just before the Halloween holiday, and with all the proceeds going to the museum, seemed the perfect combination.

“I love runs because they support community organizations. They get people out and about,” she said. “When Jim Beavers passed away, we wanted to do something to honor him, because he was a long time board member of the Homesteader [Museum], and he was also a board member at Crown Hill Cemetery. So we thought, What’s a better way to celebrate Jim than to do an event that incorporates both the cemetery and the museum?”

The run used to proceed through the cemetery and past Beavers’ gravesite, but now the event simply passes the front of the cemetery after the event was denied entry by the cemetery board after the first two races. The runners weren’t fazed this year and some visited Beavers’ grave after the event.

Yet, there was still one huge part of Beavers’ life that seemed missing. Honoring Beavers didn’t make sense without a little green and gold. While all types of costumes were encouraged (Michela dressed as a bumblebee), many runners were inspired to dress as Green Bay Packers fans, including first year participants Joe and Janet Koritnik, who dressed from head to toe in Packer colors and courageously admitted to being fans. Maybe the biggest Packer fan at the race was Brian Beavers, who attended the race with his wife Erin.

“[My father] was a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan,” said Brian Beavers, Jim’s son. “He had a whole room dedicated to Green Bay Packer paraphernalia.”

Brian, who drove his 1949 Ford F1, was overjoyed with the event and the number of people wearing Packers fanatics gear. The all original truck has been in his family since it was new, passed down several times until Brian got his turn.

“He would have loved this,” Brian said.

The youngest participant was 3-year-old Claire Johnson, who was determined to win her age group while being escorted by her mother Sarah. Dressed in a fox costume complete with an authentic foxtail, Claire lined up at the front of the 1-mile race saying, “I want to win.”

As the 64 runners began to cross the finish line, both the oldest and youngest runners were winners in their own special age groups.

In the 10K run, 18-year-old Treven Chauncey of Cody took the overall first place, followed closely by 13-year-old Carmello Ynostrosa and 15-year-old Aiden Duck. Chauncey finished the course in 8:38.

In the 5K, Abby Murphy finished in first place at 7:53, beating Morrissey by 10 seconds and Casey Sheets by just over a minute.

Next year the race will be scheduled for Halloween morning, the first time the race has fallen on All-Hallows Eve, which was originally a Celtic holiday. Places for the 1K run and prizes for best costume weren’t immediately available.

Several local businesses financially supported the race, including One Health, Vision West, Heart Mountain Broadcasting, Northwest Trading Post, Pinnacle Bank, Keele Sanitation, Pepsi, White Ink Printing & Shipping, Housel Law Firm, Fremont Motor Powell, Blair’s, Thompson Funeral Home, JP Dunn Digital, Beavers Simmental and the Powell Tribune.