Some of Central Oregon’s most successful track and field athletes participated in the Bend Hershey’s Games, which is ending after 37 years. Relay events like this are part of the meet.Courtesy of Bend Park & Recreation District

Rich Ekman has had a lifelong love affair with the Hershey’s Track & Field Games.

As a 9-year-old in 1978, Ekman competed in the first Hershey’s Games ever staged in Bend, running on an old tri-oval cinder track at what was then Pilot Butte Junior High. During his high school and college years, he volunteered to help put on the youth track and field meet.

After landing a job with the local park district, which put on the Hershey’s meet in Bend each spring, he became the primary organizer of the local event. In 2006, he became the event’s Oregon state director.

“It’s been a big part of my work and my life,” says Ekman, now 47, who grew up in Bend and serves as sports coordinator for the Bend Park & Recreation District. “I’ve seen the benefit of it all. I’ve seen the smiles it puts on kids’ faces.”

It was with a heavy heart, then, that Ekman announced last week that the 2014 Hershey’s meet in Bend, scheduled for this Wednesday at Bend High School, will be the last.

The competition is open to children ages 9 to 14, and entry — as it has been for Hershey meets throughout the years — is free. Field events will start at 4 p.m., and running events are set to begin at 5:30 p.m.

All participants still have the chance to advance to state competition at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on June 28, and from there they can qualify for the national Hershey’s meet Aug. 2 in Pennsylvania.

But the 37th year of the Hershey’s Track & Field Games will be the program’s final run.

“The program morphed into something it wasn’t meant to be,” Ekman says, offering his take on the termination of the annual Hershey’s Games. “It’s become all about making the national meet, and that wasn’t the intent when Hershey’s started the program in 1978.”

Case in point: Ekman says 80 percent of all the money for the Hershey’s Track & Field Games is spent on the national meet and the 400 kids who compete in Hershey, Pa. — despite the fact that more than 33,000 youngsters are involved in the program at the local level.

“That’s where (Hershey’s) stepped back and looked at what they needed to do,” Ekman says.

While the famous chocolate maker will no longer be staging track meets, it is not abandoning kids and youth athletics. Instead of hosting competitions, Hershey’s is partnering with USA Track & Field and offering around the country “Run, Jump and Throw” events, which are designed to teach kids basic athletic movements.

“It was always meant to be a grassroots program that introduced kids to track,” Ekman says about Hershey’s original motive for starting its Track & Field Games. “You can’t use spikes. You don’t have to have a trainer teach you the shot put; instead, we do a softball throw. It was a beginner program for track. But it turned into something else.”

An all-star list of Central Oregon track and field standouts participated in the Bend Hershey’s Games as kids, most notably 2012 Olympic decathlon gold medalist Ashton Eaton. Former Summit High star Kellie Schueler, who went on to win 16 state championships and then run at Stanford, is a Hershey’s alum, as are Mountain View’s Mitch Modin and Summit’s Michael Wilson, who now compete in college at Oregon and Duke, respectively. More recently, Sisters High’s Brandon Pollard, who just capped his high school career with a Class 4A state title in the 800 meters, made it to the national Hershey’s meet in 2009.

According to Ekman, approximately 4,500 kids compete at 20 different Oregon Hershey’s meets each year, with about 500 of those youngsters advancing to the state meet at Hayward Field.

“The Hershey has been the starting platform for many local athletes that have gone on to have success at the high school, college and Olympic level,” Ekman says. “But even more so, it has introduced thousands of kids to sport and recreation.”

Ekman says the Bend Park & Recreation District will discus ways to continue holding a youth track and field meet in Bend, but he acknowledges that something exceptional is coming to an end.

“We’re not going to be disappointed or hang our head,” Ekman says about the park district’s approach to the final local Hershey’s meet. “We’ll celebrate the last 37 years of the program.

“This has been a pretty special event for us down here,” Ekman adds. “People who know nothing about track here look forward to helping run this meet every year. … The building will be buzzing come June 4, the day of the Hershey’s meet.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0305; beastes@bendbulletin.com.