CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation will hold it’s annual “Run to Remember” on the lakefront Saturday morning.  

This year, a special guest will be at the starting line: Officer Carlos Yanez Jr will count down the 4500 runners to the start of the race.  

Yanez junior was shot in the head in August of 2021, while conducting a traffic stop.  

His partner, Officer Ella French, was killed during the violent encounter.  

Phil Cline is the Executive Director of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.

“When he was shot that night, a lot of people thought he wasn’t going to make it, but he’s really gotten into the rehab and he’s going to surprise us all when you see him there,” Cline said.  

Yanez Jr lost an eye and has been rehabbing, dealing with partial paralysis.  

The Run to Remember is held at Gold Star Families’ Memorial and Park just East of Soldier Field. 

The 5K run-walk starts at 8 a.m.

More information at the Run To Remember website.

It’s held in honor of the city’s 595 fallen Chicago police officers.   

 “What it’s about is we have 22 kids of police officers who were killed or catastrophically injured – and those 22 officers’ kids are going all the way from pre-school to grad school,” Cline said. “And thanks to the generous supporters of the memorial, they don’t pay a dime of tuition. They don’t pay a dime for any after school activities or anything. We pick up the tab on all of that, so it makes everybody feel good that that’s what you’re running for.”

This is the group’s largest fundraiser of the year. They hope to raise more than $300,000 with all of the proceeds going to the families fallen and seriously injured Chicago police officers. 

WGN’s own Mike Lowe will emcee the race.

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