Mabel firefighter runs to support the Madeline Kingsbury family
Aug. 11—MABEL, Minn. — "For Maddi." Remain loud in the search for Madeline Kingsbury. Shine
blue lights to lead the way home
for Maddi. Seek justice for Maddi. Through Kingsbury's disappearance and death, Rick Aske has done these things and more.
"Rick demonstrates dedication, hard work, and loyalty towards his community — not only did he participate (and lead groups) in nearly every search for Maddi, but he continues to demonstrate this by volunteering to do the run in full fireman gear in order to raise money for Madeline's family," wrote Kingsbury's Winona State University sorority sisters in a Facebook post. "A truly outstanding human being that we are lucky to now have as part of our family."
Aske will run alongside about 150 people in the
Run from the Sun 5K
on Saturday. He said running in full fireman gear is a creative way to raise money for the family and is "just something that's in my wheelhouse." He's served as a firefighter for 13 years in Mabel.
The run raises awareness about melanoma and skin cancer in honor of Tye Eiken, who passed away in 2015. The organization selected the Kingsbury family as this year's raffle beneficiary, which include raffle sales of a booze buggy. Aske said he hopes the funds will "take a little bit of that burden away from the family and kids." Thus far, people have donated $3,325 for the Kingsbury family, including Maddi's 5-year-old and 2-year-old children.
From Winona to Mabel, first responders
hosted "giant searches" with more than 2,000 people
in the weekend after
Kingsbury's disappearance.
Like many firefighters from departments in the area, Aske volunteered to help, to head into the storm and care for the people caught in the pain. He led groups of 10 to 12 people with "just hope, trying to stay positive."
"I just felt drawn to it," Aske said. "I just kept wanting to do more, so I kept helping the girls from Minnesota United and a lot of her sorority sisters put on these group searches every weekend."
People tirelessly continued the search for Kingsbury. After more than two months, Kingsbury's body was found in Mabel, Minnesota, near property maintained by the Fravel family. Adam Fravel, the father of Kingsbury's children, has been
charged with second-degree murder
in her death.
At a memorial site lined with blue, Aske tends to the thoughtfully donated items and mows the lawn in the area north of Mabel on Minnesota Highway 43. Blue flowers, blue lanterns and crosses offer space for people to mourn. Blue was Kingsbury's favorite color, and now presenting the color is a way for people to raise awareness about domestic violence. Aske said "people have been very generous of dropping stuff off and making a nice sight of it (the memorial site)."
"I'm from a small community, obviously, and this stuff kind of hits home different and this one being so close to home, ... (people) want to help and be respectful and just show support for the family," Aske said.
To donate to the run's Kingsbury fund, people can send funds to Aske on Paypal @RickAske and on Venmo @Rick-Aske.
