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Written by Elisabeth Craig
Published on August 27, 2025
Rockville High School at the beginning of the bike-a-thon
Chatterton with the Canton lacrosse players at Canton High School
The group of runners at Eastern's last Poverty Awareness Marathon
Chatterton and the lacrosse team of Ellington High School
Chatterton holding a sign at the Bike-a-thon's end site at Canton
Chatterton and his Granby players at Salmon Brook Park
Chatterton with the lacrosse team at Suffield High School
Eastern business administration Professor Charles Chatterton recently spearheaded a charity event utilizing biking and lacrosse on Aug. 22. The Rockville High School/North Central Connecticut Conference (NCCC) Girls Lacrosse Bicycle Ride & Lacrosse Skills Challenge supported FoodShare, Connecticut’s statewide food bank, in its fight against hunger.
The main event was a 60-mile bicycle ride that started at Rockville High School (RHS) and ended at Canton High School with stops at Ellington, Somers, Suffield, and Granby Memorial High Schools along the way. The event supported small, local food pantries in addition to FoodShare.
“The ride was really challenging, so I did my best to smile up all the hills,” said Chatterton, who coaches girls’ lacrosse at Rockville High School and wanted to get his players involved in charity efforts.
“I thought that this event would be a creative way to give back to our community for a very important cause, get some good exercise, and honor the game of lacrosse,” he said. “I also wanted to encourage my players to challenge themselves and work to improve their own lacrosse skills.”
Following the event, Chatterton expressed his goal of getting the Center for Community Engagement and other groups on campus to bring back the Poverty Awareness Marathon, one of his previous charitable initiatives.
“The last time we had this event was in 2019 right before COVID,” he said. “I won’t be personally running a whole marathon this time but would love to put in a few miles as part of the 26.2-mile effort.”
Chatterton added that $2584.60 was raised for FoodShare along with 65 pounds of food collected at RHS to help Connecticut families. “The support of the coaches and players at the different schools was great and a real team effort,” he said.