By Jay Sorgi • Posted October 17, 2025

A Mass and 5K run took place Oct. 12 that each year not only memorializes the late Johnny Williamson and his love of running, but also supports the sanctity and dignity of human life.

Johnny’s Run for Life, organized by his father John Williamson, a Havertown-based attorney, stepped off Sunday morning at Cardinal O’Hara High School, the alma mater for both father and son.

The annual 5K run and one-mile walk in Johnny’s memory, which typically draws more than 1,100 participants, has raised more than $4 million to benefit local crisis pregnancy centers in the last 16 years, said John Williamson.

Donations are still being accepted at the official event page.

“He (ran) a four-minute, 30-second mile before he died. He was All-Catholic in track and field, and was also All-Catholic in band for four years at Cardinal O’Hara High School,” said Williamson, who feels his son’s presence every October when the race is run.

“The event is right there, and there’s a big cross in the middle of the field. We always call that Johnny’s cross, and you have to run around that twice during the race.

“It’s funny, where he was buried is almost directly across the street from the front door at Cardinal O’Hara. He’s at the closest lot in the SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery. After every race, I usually stick my number on his grave. He is there.”

Johnny, a 2005 Cardinal O’Hara graduate, was a 21-year-old senior at Drexel University when he died after a car crash in Lycoming County early in the morning of Jan. 25, 2009. He was riding with a group of his fraternity brothers who were touring numerous colleges across Pennsylvania that weekend before being installed as the chair of Drexel University’s Catholic Newman Center.

The driver of the car fell asleep at 3 a.m., leading to the crash that killed Johnny and his friend Ian Alexander of Royersford.

Williamson says the idea for the annual event, which raises money for multiple crisis pregnancy centers, was spawned at Johnny’s wake and funeral when some of the 3,000 people who attended, began discussing a fundraising run.

“A priest gave a homily about my son a few weeks after his funeral. Somebody came up to him and asked him if he wanted to do a run in his name,” said Williamson.

“The priest got him in touch with us, and that’s how Johnny’s Run got started.”

It’s also provided a spotlight on two focuses of Johnny’s life: evangelizing the Catholic faith, and pro-life causes.

“Before he died, three kids came back to the Catholic Church because he talked to them at the age of 21,” said Williamson. “After he died, I know that many people changed their mind among many of the kids that he knew, and there was a great swing amongst his friends about going back to church.”

Williamson said that pro-life causes touched Johnny as early as 6 years old, an age where few children grasp the issues involved.

“He probably went to the March for Life 15 times before he was 21 years old,” Williamson said.

“When he was in the first grade at St. Pius X (School in Broomall), one of the teachers came in and asked the whole class if they knew what the day was. It was the day for the March for Life, and Johnny knew what it was all about even though he was so young.

“I thought he was too young to understand what abortion is, and it seemed like he just got it through osmosis. He just knew.”

Johnny’s family focused specifically on honoring his passion for pro-life work through the run and other efforts.

“When my son died, we got $600,000 from the insurance policy. We took that money and gave it to three different pro-life organizations,” said Williamson.

“Since that time, we have raised and given our own money totaling close to $4 million and probably saved, at a rate of $1,000 a child, close to 4,000 children from abortion with that money.”

The money from donations at this year’s race will continue to help mothers fulfill Johnny’s last words on Facebook before he died: “Choose life.”