“She inspired us. In her life and her death she brought us together,” close friend Donna Vincent said. “And I know she lives on through us. Remembering her is honoring her, and we will never forget.”

Also, Randy Gold honored his son Eric Gold, a class of 2009 law student, who passed away on Jan. 20 this year. Last year Randy Gold participated in the “Hustle Up the Hancock” in Chicago, climbing all 94 flights of the Hancock Building. Eric Gold had participated in 2005-2007. This is a fundraiser for the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, a group dedicated to raising money for respiratory disease research and treatment. He will participate again on Feb. 25, 2009. For anyone interested in more information or donating to this cause, visit Randy Gold’s personal fundraising Web site.

Barclift was not only training for the half-marathon to keep in top physical health, her determination was also driven by her passion for LifeSouth’s Five Points of Life program’s mission. LifeSouth’s mission represents five ways in which people can share life with others through donation of whole blood, apheresis, marrow and blood cells, cord blood and organ and tissue. As an advocate of planning ahead with family, Barclift was an organ donor and as a result saved one person’s life, Perrin said.

Students, faculty, staff, friends and others who were impacted by Barclift’s story honored her throughout the weekend. Many people participated in or volunteered with various events besides the half-marathon. The Five Points of Life Race Weekend included a 5K, half-marathon, marathon and kid’s marathon. About 100 people participated in the races in honor of Catherine.

Not all of the runners who participated in Barclift’s honor were avid runners before training began. But, Perrin insisted the challenge of running a half-marathon for her was possible because she had someone pushing her the whole way. “It’s always easier when you have a reason to train and run the race,” Perrin said. “It’s a really exciting time.”

Perrin will always remember the good times she and her carpool mate shared, including Barclift singing silly pop songs and making Perrin listen to country music at 7:30 a.m. on the way to school. As first-year law students, the pair bonded quickly and relied on each other to help ease the apprehension of law school. Perrin remembers Barclift as funny, bright, genuinely sweet and bubbly. “It’s natural to still talk about her and remember her,” Perrin said. “Our lives were very connected; she brightened up my day every day.”

Now a group of more than 50 of her classmates and friends have signed on to run in her honor in that same race that’s sponsored by LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, with an effort they’ve dubbed “I’m Running for Catherine.” Alex Perrin and Justin Leak, who are both first-year law students and were classmates of Barclift, have helped organize the effort. Leak says he didn’t know Catherine—Cat to her friends—personally, but he could see the impact her death on Nov. 6 had on his fellow students. Barclift was struck and critically injured as she was running home to her apartment and died the following day.

“I was out for a run and I thought we needed to do something to honor her,” Leak says. “I thought ‘She was preparing for a half-marathon, why don’t we run in her honor’.”

He bounced the idea off of Perrin, Barclift’s neighbor, friend and classmate. The two had met under unusual circumstances just before classes began in the fall. Barclift came knocking on Perrin’s front door and brought her out of the tub, dripping wet, and wrapped in a towel to answer it. It turned out the tub was leaking badly through the floor directly into Barclift’s apartment below. The neighbors soon learned they had a lot in common.

“Catherine and I were real close,” Perrin says. “We were pretty much together every day.”

And by the time of her death, Barclift’s circle of close friends had grown during her short time in Gainesville.

“She was very gregarious, very funny, very outgoing, very warm, she knew everybody on campus in just weeks,” Perrin says.

That social side of Catherine Barclift came as no surprise to her parents, Robert and Stephanie Barclift of Fort Myers. Stephanie Barclift explains that when Catherine was growing up, she switched schools several times, so she knew what it was like to be the new person, the one on the outside of the cliques.

“She would make the extra effort to get to know people,” she says.

And at the UF law college Catherine Barclift found her niche.

“She was impressed with the people she was with,” says Stephanie Barclift. “It’s truly a wonderful community of students and professors.”

And she says those who did get to know her daughter were often surprised. Yes, she was attractive, liked nice clothes, but she had a real sense of adventure. She’d paddled a sea kayak off of Alaska and hiked on a glacier. She also had an inner toughness, demonstrated during the summer of 2005 when she was studying in London and terrorists blew up a double-decker bus just yards from her apartment. Many other American students came home after that incident, but Catherine chose to stay.

Stephanie Barclift says Catherine could also surprise her professors on occasion. While she’d accrued academic honors as an undergrad at Florida State and tallied prestigious internships on her résumé, when asked to write about what she was most proud of in her life, she picked a topic much closer to home, “she wrote about her younger sister Caroline.”

Early in the semester Perrin and Barclift and a few other female law students decided to start running for exercise and for stress release. They posted a page on the Facebook social networking Web site called “Look Pretty Run Nasty,” and the goal of running the Five Points of Life half-marathon took shape.

Robert Barclift says as a youngster Catherine had run 5K races with him, but he wouldn’t have described her as a runner.

“She was more of a lyrical soprano than a jock,” he says. “Her focus was more on music, she did sports more for fun.”

Perrin says during the semester Barclift began to take her training seriously.

“She was running every day, she was so excited, she’d gotten up to six miles,” Perrin says.

The fact that his daughter would get serious about the running, did not surprise Robert Barclift. He says it’s a family trait.

“When we decide to do something, we laser in on it,” he says.

The accident occurred as she was running home from a workout at the gym, and she stepped into the path of a SUV while crossing SW 34th St. She was only about a block from home. She was taken to Shands at the University of Florida, but her injuries were too severe for survival. Her last gift was herself, Catherine Barclift was an organ donor – her heart, her two kidneys, her liver and one lung, went to five different patients who’d pinned their hopes for life on such a gift. Robert Barclift says he remembers going with Catherine in June of 2001 when she got her driver’s license, where the question is posed, “Would you wish to be an organ donor?” and he asked her how she felt about that.

“Without hesitation, she said she’d like to do that,” he recalls.

And before she died there was another reminder.

“My wife pulled out her driver’s license and there it was,” he says.

And the tragic irony isn’t lost on her father—the daughter who became an organ donor was training for a race, the Five Points of Life, which has a goal to promote five life-saving steps people can take, and one of those steps is signing up as an organ donor and sharing your thoughts and wishes with those you know and love.

“We felt good about it that she’d made that decision and that she had helped others,” Robert Barclift says.

On campus, the sign-ups continue. “I’m Running for Catherine” now has its own Facebook page that her law school classmates, old friends from FSU, sorority sisters from Gamma Phi Beta and more have visited. Some of the students who know they can’t run a half-marathon are signing up for the 5Points 5K on Feb. 23. Others have volunteered to help on race day, while others have contributed money to support the Five Points of Life program.

Alex Perrin says part of the challenge for her was just running outside again in Gainesville, but she’s been able to do that. Running for her friend, and running for a cause have helped. Classmate and fellow organizer Justin Leak agrees and says the effort has added focus to his training.

“It’s given me an incentive. When you are doing it in somebody’s honor it carries a lot more weight,” he says.

And it’s an effort and thought that’s touched her family as well.

“We feel honored both for us and for Catherine,” says Robert Barclift.

For more information, contact Alex Perrin at alexandriaperrin@ufl.edu or go to the website to donate at http://www.active.com/donate/fivepointsoflife/catherinebarclift.

Catherine Barclift (pictured left) will be remembered not just for her intellect, but for her off-the-chart energetic personality.

“Her smile was absolutely dazzling,” Legal Skills Professor Tracy Rambo said. “When she smiled, you couldn’t quite tell what she was thinking, but you knew it was something extraordinary, and just a bit mischievous. She was delightful—sassy and spunky, in the very best of ways. Her death touched everyone—those who knew her well, and those who had just met her. She will be missed, and she will not be forgotten.”

A Remembrance Service will be held at the Levin College of Law on Thursday, Nov. 15, 5-6 p.m., in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (HOL 180). Several persons will speak about Catherine’s special qualities and contributions. Members of Catherine’s family also plan to attend and participate in the Remembrance Service. JMBA will be handing out pink and blue ribbons in honor of Catherine. Catherine’s parents indicated that her favorite colors were pink and blue. The law school community is asked to plan to wear the ribbons this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Nov. 13-15).

Barclift, a first-year law student from Fort Myers, died Nov. 6, one day after being hit by an SUV while jogging at the intersection of SW 34th Street and Radio Road.

Third-year UF Law student Jill Levy, who was Barclift’s Ambassador when she arrived in August, said she was well-loved by every person who knew her. “She was always the first person to smile when you entered a room and always made people laugh,” Levy said. “From what I know, Catherine loved being in law school here, mostly because of the people she’d met, and would have been a wonderful lawyer.”

Barclift, 22, received her undergraduate degree at Florida State University. At FSU, according to a story published in theTallahassee Democrat, Barclift majored in international affairs and was a member of Gamma Phi Beta. “I’m still kind of in shock right now,” Kate McCoy, a sorority sister and senior biology and physics major at FSU, told the Tallassee Democrat. McCoy created a Facebook group to pray for and remember Barclift.

McCoy described Barclift as a “social butterfly” who was also intelligent. Barclift was in the Pre-Law Society and graduated with honors. She was going to make a great lawyer,” McCoy told the paper.

The funeral for Barclift will be Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 5 p.m. at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers (2439 McGregor Boulevard). A bus will be provided to attend the service for anyone who is able to attend. It will leave the law school parking lot at noon. Please be on time so that additional rides can be organized, if needed. The family welcomes as many people at the service as possible; your presence will be appreciated. Food and drink is allowed on the bus. The bus is made possible by donations from all of you through Sections 2 and 3 fundraising and through contributions from the John Marshall Bar Association and the Law College Council.

Barclift’s parents are interested in the experiences her friends at UF Law shared with Catherine. In Catherine’s honor, the law school will prepare a scrapbook containing pictures, stories, poems, and thoughts that will be meaningful for the Barclift family. JMBA will serve as a collection center for tangible objects, printed photos, cards, and memorabilia. The JMBA table will be set up in the courtyard through Thursday, Nov. 15, at noon. The scrapbook will be assembled by a professional scrapbook company and presented to the family. If you prefer to make your submission electronically please e-mail the materials to JMBA.UF@gmail.com.

“This is a terrible tragedy and a tremendous loss,” UF Law Dean Robert Jerry said. “Catherine was an exceptional person with enormous potential who was highly esteemed by her classmates. We ask everyone to keep her family in their thoughts and prayers.”