A group of Amador High School students are running a 24-hour relay to help homeless classmates and other people without housing in their community.
Jesse Chavez is the cross country track coach at the high school and says the relay began at 8 a.m. on Friday.
"Gonna go 'til eight tomorrow morning, 24 hours, 10 kids, each kid runs a mile at a time, hands off to the next kid until the first kid starts again. Pretty basic stuff, but it's not easy and it's getting warm,” he said.
Money raised from the relay will benefit the Amador Student Homeless Fund and the Amador County emergency homeless shelter in Jackson.
"There are many homeless people here. It's an issue. It's not going to go away. They have to appreciate the fact it is here and it could very well be somebody sitting next to them in math class," Chavez said.
According to the coach, the last five hours of the relay will be the hardest.
"The trick is to keep smiling and joking and be a good cheerleader and just keep doing one mile at a time. It takes a lot of patience. These kids are great kids to volunteer to even do this. So I do everything I can do to support them, keep them happy and fed and not grumpy," Chavez said.
Last year was the first year for the relay and raised $4,000.
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