ORION 5K Presents Bicentennial Jam June 8
Starring Rocker with Deep Memphis Roots By Joe Birch Memphis is known worldwide for many things. It’s a mecca for music first and foremost, home of Gospel, Blues, Soul and Rock ‘n’ roll. The 2019 Orion 5K has you covered in the music department with a heaping helping of authentic Memphis music by a rising name on the city’s sound scene – Graham Winchester. More about our featured musical act in a second. Memphians are passionate about their food, and the Orion 5K post-race bash will tempt you with scrumptious choices to satisfy your appetite after running 3.1 miles. Memphis is renowned for its generous heart, and our Orion 5K title sponsor has gone above and beyond the call of duty in charitable and community giving year after year. You see Orion Federal Credit Union’s logo at all kinds of great grassroots events. For starters, there’s the 50 concerts coming in the 2019 Orion Free Music Concert Series at Levitt Shell starting May 30 with the North Mississippi All Stars. Then there’s the Indy Memphis Weekly Film Series presented by Orion, River Arts Fest, Movies at the Orpheum and the list goes on and on where Orion plays key sponsorship roles celebrating life in Memphis. In an unprecedented gift of generosity at a Memphis running event, Orion will award $500 to the first-place winners in all youth categories at the Orion 5K on June 8, so the young winners (malefemale age groups 9 and under, 10-14 and 15-19) can support a 501c3 nonprofit of their choice. “We believe offering the charity prize option promotes philanthropy and instills the importance of giving back to the community at an early age,” stated Daniel Weickenand, Orion CEO. After we start out 5K at 7 o’clock sharp run on 4th
Street at FedEx Forum, run west on Beale and along Riverside Drive, we’ll award 2,000 all-new Orion 5K finisher medals and we’ll gather under a big top in Church Park on the east side of FedEx Forum for food, drinks and a Rock ‘n’ Roll performance you may be telling friends and family about all summer. A direct descendant of a founder of Memphis will rock the Orion 5K post-race Bicentennial Jam on Saturday night, June 8. “Lately I am influenced by the iconic Memphis bands and singers,” said Graham Winchester, a rising Memphis maestro whose family lineage makes him kin to city cofounder James Winchester and his son, the first Mayor of the Bluff City, Marcus Brutus Winchester. While the young virtuoso’s family makes him the perfect artist to lead a musical celebration on Memphis’ 200th birthday, his astounding musicianship and taste seals the deal. “Everything from Big Star to Booker T and the MGs, Jim Dickinson to Sid Selvidge, Carl Perkins to Jesse Winchester,” said the 31-year-old married father of two. Winchester has a perfect day job for a musical Memphian: tour guide at Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue. He sells souvenirs and makes milk shakes at the café at Sun Studio Café when he’s not showing visitors where Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins birthed the genre of music that changed the world. Winchester ran high school track first at CBHS and then at St. George’s, where he was among the school’s first graduates in 2006. “I haven’t run a bunch since,” said the tune master, but he and wife Erica have to keep moving to keep up with son Everlee, age 2 and his little brother, Miles, a 1-year-old. Winchester 26