Three school's made a special guest appearance Wednesday at the annual Ben Sheardown Memorial Run.

The run always has a good turnout of participants at host school F.H. Collins Secondary, however this year Golden Horn Elementary, Selkirk Elementary and Wood Street School each took part to the delight of organizers.

"It was a nice surprise,” said Jeff Cressman, a teacher at F.H. Collins and organizer of the Ben Sheardown Memorial Run. "It was nice to see some future F.H. Collins kids come out, which was kind of neat.”

Sheardown was born in Whitehorse in 1944, spending practically his whole life in the Yukon. He was one of the territory's finest athletes in his youth and won more than a few awards.

Sheardown continued his involvement in sport, later on in life, as a coach. His coaching highlights included helping the Yukon's basketball and hockey squads win a pair of silver medals at the 1980 Arctic Winter Games.

Sheardown's contribution with developing basketball in the territory was especially significant. Besides coaching a number of teams to Yukon Championships, Sheardown revolutionized the way the sport was taught. He was one of the first Yukon coaches to run year-round training programs for his athletes.

The Yukon School's Athletic Association even have an award named in his honour.

The Ben Sheardown Award for Coaching Excellence is given out every year.

Sheardown, who was a teacher and councillor at F.H. Collins Secondary School, passed away 10 years ago after losing his fight with cancer.

The money raised at the annual run is donated to the Ben Sheardown Memorial Fun. The fund is dedicated to helping Yukoners attend post secondary education institutions.

Wednesday's run had more than 200 participants. The course works its way around the Millennium Trail and is about a five kilometres.

Students were on teams of 10 and are free to walk or run at their own pace. T-shirts were handed out for top male and female student finishing times. Top adult times were also recognized and this year, each participating school was given a T-shirt as well.

Cressman said he was pleased with how the run went this year.

"We put it out as a voluntary race,” he said. "It's not as if we go to all the kids and say they have to do it because that's not what it's all about. To have over 200 people, that's pretty impressive.”

He said the run was more special this year because of the participation from the other three schools.

It was also special for Wendy Close, who taught at F.H. Collins for 16 years before becoming Golden Horn's principal in 2008.

Close said Wednesday's memorial run went well for the 18 participating Golden Horn students.

"They connected with some of the students that were in our school last year and students that graduated from our school a couple of years ago,” she said. "So it was fun to see some of their neighbours and friends.”

Golden Horn student, Ian (no last name provided), was among the race's front runners and was given a T-shirt for his finishing time.

Close hopes her school's attendance becomes an annual tradition at the memorial run .

"It's just an opportunity to connect with the feeder school they are going to and it's a whole school event for F.H. Collins,” she said.