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Profiles in Enrichment tells the stories of USEC employees who have made great contributions to the company or our local communities.
Joe Porter at the Scott Porter Memorial 5K Run/Walk in Waverly, Ohio
Joe Porter, a senior instructional technologist at USEC Inc.’s American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, has found a way to honor his son’s memory and give back to the community at the same time.
Every Memorial Day, Joe and his wife Barb host the Scott Porter Memorial 5K Run/Walk, 1Mile Fun Run/Walk and Youth Track Meet. This event raises funding for the Scott Porter Memorial Fund which has now given back more than $25,000 to the community in college scholarships and funding for extracurricular activities at Waverly High.
Why a track event? By the time their son Scott was a senior at Waverly, he had participated in three national championship cross country meets, and he had made the national championships in track five times. He had competed in Florida, California, Louisiana, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Oregon. After graduation, he went to the University of Louisville on an athletic scholarship, and two years later, he transferred to The Ohio State University to enroll as a business and finance major.
Then at age 21, Scott was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He fought it for a year as he traveled back and forth to the James Cancer Center in Columbus. “He received very good care -- he had a slim chance of success to begin with, but he was always very willing to take on the next challenge,” said Joe. “He tried to do everything he could to beat it.”
Scott went from surgeries to radiation to chemotherapy. During his treatments, he quit his part time job and came back to Waverly to serve as an assistant cross country coach alongside his mentor, Coach Willie Hobbs, now an assistant principal at Waverly.
But in January 1999, Scott sadly lost his race against cancer. Friends of Joe and Barb encouraged them to host their own track event in Scott’s memory. By Memorial Day 2000, they held the first Scott Porter Memorial 5K Run/Walk with 98 people participating and nearly 30 sponsors. In the third year, they added a youth track meet for kids 12 and under, and have since added a one-mile fun run and walk. This year, 223 participated in the tenth anniversary event, and they had more than 60 sponsors involved either with giving financial donations, supplies or services. The fund has gone from awarding one $500 scholarship the first year to awarding two $1,000 scholarships for the first time this year to seniors at Waverly.
What would Scott think about all of this? “I think he would be really pleased,” said Joe. “When he was young, he wished we had a nice 5K event like that in the community…it’s nice to be able to do that in his name.”
Joe’s other interests include teaching evening math courses at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, and helping out his wife, Barb, who is a full-time horse trainer for standardbreds. They plan to continue the Scott Porter Memorial event each year as long as they are capable of doing it. Several of Scott’s high school teammates and friends now return home each year to help out with the event in his honor. Joe returns to the high school award assembly each year to present the scholarship awards.
“I hope it’s an ongoing legacy in his name that will also provide support back to the school,” said Joe.
Joe Porter and recent beneficiaries of scholarships funded with donations to the Scott Porter Memorial 5K Run/Walk