Close to 3,000 people took part in Sunday’s Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run, a newly renamed event held in honor of the victims of the July 4 parade mass shooting.“The community is still healing, and this is part of that process of coming back stronger,” said Dan Lakin, race director with Ventures Endurance, based in Buffalo Grove.“So we look at it a couple ways,” he continued. “There’s your traditional race, and there’s also the meaning behind the race this year I think really helped drive the registration.”The Highland Park Community Foundation HPCF was a charitable partner of what was formerly the North Shore Classic, a more than four decade event which was renamed this race start was east of Port Clinton Square on Central Avenue and St. Johns year’s medal of the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer PressLast July 4, Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo were killed, and dozens more were the city of Highland Park released style guidelines to avoid use of “Highland Park strong,” replacing it with the suggested term of “Together Highland Park Unidos,” the Highland Park race kept the word “strong” in its executive director Terri Olian said, “This is energy. This is Highland Park. It’s the event been rebranded to be called the Highland Park Strong race, and it’s really the best that there is of Highland Park.“It’s all about energy and excitement, and coming together and support, and that’s who we are,” Olian added. “We are strong.”Michael Wilkinson of Roscoe Village is a 5K first finisher with a time of 1819. Wilkinson’s wife Stephanie grew up in Highland Park and is of the Highland Park High School Class of 2005. Taken at the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer PressThe event raised more than $50,000 to benefit the HPCF’s July 4th Recovery Fund, which provides mental health, legal and other services for impacted community members.“We’re resilient and we support one another ... in the midst of terrible tragedy,” Lakin the start line, the national anthem was performed by Highland Park High School musicians. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, addressed the participants.“If you look around you, you see a community standing strong and coming together,” he said. “This is what community is about. This is what resilience is about, standing strong, coming together, joining together as one.”Waiting at the 5K start line are Northbrook residents from left, Jake Breen, 10, a rising fifth-grader, Chase Breen, 8, a rising-fourth grader and their mother Sarah Breen at the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer PressZachary Gray, 9, a rising fourth grader from Highland Park, waved at his mother Suzie as Zachary’s parent left the corral for the who was in the company of his father Ben and also had a chip timed bib number, said he was there to support, “one of my friends. I’m running for Cooper.”Cooper Roberts was severely injured in the parade first 5K corral of the day starts at the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer PressAt the 5K start line was participant William Steinberg of Highland Park who was in the July 4 parade and remembers the sounds of gunfire.“It sounded like it was some invasion happening in our town,” he recalled. “Honestly, I thought it was small rockets that were dropped at the microphone, but really it was actual gunshots I heard.“Why did it have to be Highland Park?” Steinberg and Sarah Breen of Northbrook participated with their children Jake, 10, a rising fifth grader, and Chase, 8, a rising fourth grader. The Breen family members are regulars on the local racing scene.“This one I made sure to sign up for just because I thought it was really important to be here and to try to help, in any little way, to benefit survivors and victims and everything that happened last year,” Sarah Breen said. “I just thought this was a good way to honor it.” Rep. Brad Schneider D-10th addresses participants at the start line of the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer PressWith the Breen children, she said, “We talk about it a lot. They were obviously aware of what was going on last year, and we talked about why we want to run this specific race. I think the benefit is just to be there as a community, and to do what you can.”Jake Breen said he was there to run, “for the people that got shot or hurt. I hope they get better.”Chase Breen said, “This race is special because we’re helping people, the victims that got shot and the survivors, because that was a bad day.”Justin Breen added, “This is way bigger than running. Much bigger.”Breanne Cerna-Wons, 18, of Highland Park and a 2023 graduate of Highland Park High School, performs the national anthem at the start line with fellow high school musicians at the Highland Park Strong Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Run on June 4, 2023 in downtown Highland Park. Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer Press