When 19-year-old Sam Fletcher thinks about his big sister, something that happens hundreds of times every summer day between breakfast and bedtime, he pictures Emily running.

He imagines Emily enjoying laugh-laden hours with the innumerable friends she made in the Twin Cities during a life that ended too abruptly. More than anything else, he remembers Emily helping people, giving back, and trying to make everyone’s world as blessed as her own.

And so the youngest of three distance-running Fletcher siblings, on the cusp of his sophomore year at the University of Virginia, goes about Emily’s business in her honor. These days, he’s pounding the pavement in every sense of the word, putting hands and feet to memories and transforming grief into good deeds.

Sam Fletcher is the driving force behind the Emily Fletcher Memorial 5K. The Saturday morning road race begins and ends at Edward Little High School in Auburn with the goal of giving student-athletes who begin in the hallways of his family’s alma mater a chance to pursue endless opportunities in the real world.

“It’s exciting,” he said, “to be keeping her memory alive.”

Emily blazed a trail to the University of Vermont. Still closely connected to her roots, she was on her way home for the holidays last December when her car missed a sharp curve on the winding road between the New Hampshire border and Bethel. Fletcher died at the scene.

Nobody within Emily’s shocked circle of influence has recovered, of course. But perhaps because they can sense her intolerance for inaction and excuses, their mourning has broken.

Nine weeks ago, Sam says a delegation of Lewiston-Auburn residents followed that same rural highway to UVM for the first Emily Fletcher Memorial 5K to benefit a campus memorial fund there.

And we do mean a delegation.

“It was 25, maybe even 30 people,” Sam Fletcher said. “That’s pretty amazing when you consider it’s at least a four-hour drive, one way, just to get over there.”

His own track and field season and scholastic year in the books, Sam experienced the urge to grab the baton and rally Emily’s survivors closer to home.

As you might expect, it wasn’t a glamorous assignment. There were ample distractions during spring semester, when Sam was able to immerse himself in schoolwork and competition.

On summer’s doorstep, back in his family home, Sam encountered constant reminders of Emily’s infectious smile and uncommon talent. Having to promote the “memorial” anything simply reinforced the harsh reality that his sister wasn’t coming back.

“We just kept putting it off and putting it off,” Sam said of his on-again, off-again attempts to organize tomorrow’s event. “The idea started a month or two ago, after the race in Vermont. It didn’t take off seriously until the last week and a half.”

Entry blanks weren’t readily available to regional running clubs and recent alumni at EL, Lewiston and other area schools until the last seven days. Consequently, Sam hasn’t received many in the mail.

Other than his optimism that dozens of you will recognize Emily’s name, roll out of bed, dig your sneakers out of the closet and show up with an energy bar in hand before the 10 a.m. shotgun start, he has no way of knowing what to expect.

Sam is thankful for his cell phone and the guidance of two Auburn-area running mentors, Dan Campbell and Al Harvie.

“It’s mostly the three of us. It’s tough to get out the word, find runners and find volunteers when you’re down to the last four days before the race,” Sam said. “I think we’re going to be alright. A lot of people have stepped forward and told us they want to do this for Emily.”

So here’s the deal: Open registration begins at 8 a.m. Saturday. The $15 entry fee is a donation to the Emily Fletcher Memorial Scholarship Fund at EL.

Feel free to call Sam with any questions at 782-3243.

Run to celebrate the past. Run as an investment in the future. If nothing else, run to let Sam, his brother Ben, father Ralph and the Fletcher family know that seven months have done nothing to quench Emily’s ebullient spirit.

“If it had been for somebody else, she definitely would have been out there,” Emily’s little brother said. “I hope that a lot of her friends and our family’s friends will go out there, just have fun and do it for her.”

Kalle Oakes is a staff writer. His e-mail is [email protected].