Family and Friends Carry on Min's Memory though 29th Annual Walk/Run Canceled
Aug. 23—CLINTON — The 29th Annual Min's Mississippi Memorial 4-Mile Walk/Run has been canceled, but event organizer Melody Wilkinson of Thomson, Illinois, says they are still accepting orders for T-shirts and sponsors in order to continue awarding Melinda Wilkinson Memorial Scholarships.
"My ex-husband, who I am still really good friends with," Melody says, "is going through cancer right now, so he's going through chemo and he's not strong enough to help out."
The T-shirts, always white, are adorned with the picture of a fish. The colors of the fish, which this year are orange, yellow, and pink, change with each annual event. It is a drawing that Melody and Steve Wilkinson's daughter, Melinda, or "Min" as she was nicknamed, drew when she was 14 and won a contest with at the Whiteside County Fair when she was 14 years old.
Melinda was a ninth-grade honor student at Thomson High School. She was a basketball cheerleader, played volleyball, and loved to read. She dreamed of moving to Arizona to work in psychology or counseling.
Not long after her drawing won the Whiteside County Fair contest, though, Melinda was found dead just north of Thomson, having been beaten to death with a baseball bat by her boyfriend of two years, David Huffman.
On Feb. 22, 1995, as reported by other news sources at that time, Huffman, then 17 years old, had been driving his grandfather's purple 1994 Ford pickup just after 6 p.m. About the same time, Melinda was running, training for track season. The two coincidentally came across each other along a secluded road at Potter's Marsh Campground.
Huffman ultimately confessed to repeatedly striking Melinda with a baseball bat while she wore a bandanna around her eyes. Investigators later recovered a blood-stained baseball bat and jacket that Huffman had worn that evening.
According to the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois, Huffman pled guilty on Aug. 7, 1995, to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death. Upon conviction was sentenced on Sept. 13, 1995, to serve up to 75 years in prison. Now 46 years old, he remains in custody at the the Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro, Illinois, nearly 242 miles south of Thomson. A 1998 petition to the court for postconviction relief and 2007 petition for vacation of his conviction were denied.
"The first year that we lost her, we knew we wanted to do something special," Melody says. "Even when our hearts were broken, my friends got together and we all figured it out."
The annual walk/run takes place in Thomson on Sandridge Road each year, with music and two water stops available along the route two miles out and two miles back.
It's with this event that three $500 scholarships are awarded yearly to high school seniors residing in Thomson.
"It's been very helpful to be able to help others out," Melody says, "and that's why we do this, for those young students just growing up and getting into their livelihood and trying to figure out what they're doing."
Melody, without hesitation, says the 30th annual event will take place next year.
"It really doesn't seem like it's been that long and other times it feels like it's been forever since we got to be with her," Melody says, adding that the walk/run carries on Melinda's memory, "and we wouldn't want to give that up right now."
T-shirts are $16 each through size 2X. Larger sizes cost only slightly more. To be guaranteed a shirt, it's asked that orders are in before Aug. 26. Orders after that date will be $2 more. Melody can be reached at (815) 275-7298 or Steve at (815) 499-8946.
