DEERFIELD – Jim Mott joined NewsTalk Thursday afternoon to talk about the upcoming 12th Annual Mott Marathon, which will be held Thursday, June 7. The event will kick off with the 4th Annual Jarvis Mile at 3 p.m., followed by the Mott Marathon at 3:30 p.m.

The Mott Marathon was created in 2006 when a senior student, Eric Lachacz, bragged to his teacher and marathon runner Jim Mott that running would be easy and not require training. Lachacz promised to run a marathon and raise money for charity, and he ended up running a 26.2 miles in 5 hours and 45 minutes.

This year, 55 seniors at Central Valley Academy will be running the Mott Marathon, nearly half of the senior class. The marathon is usually held on CVA’s track, but it’s currently undergoing construction, so the marathon will be held at Herkimer Elementary School on Gros Boulevard.

Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit CVA senior Marcus Sardina and his family, to help cover the costs of Marcus’s cancer treatments.

A pasta dinner will also be held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 6 at CVA, and tickets are $5.

“Any person that would say the teenagers are bad today, or there’s problems with kids today, I challenge you to come up to the field on June 7, come up to the school, and just watch them,” Jim Mott said. “The sky is the limit.”

Since the event’s inception, it has raised about $25,000 for local charities – with $10,000 of that coming from just one year.

For more information about the event, watch the video above.