HORSEHEADS, N.Y. (WENY) -- Earlier today in Horseheads, the first annual Orlando Josiah Memorial 5K was held to honor the memory of Orlando Josiah Vargas, who passed away unexpectedly just a year ago.

Hundreds of runners took to the paths of Thorne Street Park and braved the rain for the first annual Orlando Josiah Memorial 5K. The race was held in honor of Orlando Josiah Vargas, who passed away unexpectedly last June, just before his sixth birthday.

"I appreciate you know from the bottom of our hearts and my family as well that people came out, they showed up. They volunteered, they ran, they walked, they poured their hearts out for our family, and we're grateful. For us rain isn't anything new, we've walked through some rainy roads, some thundering roads this past year so we thought it might rain it might sunshine, but that's life we can rejoice in and all of it," said Orlando Vargas, Orlando Josiah's father.

Orlando and Jessica Vargas organized the 5K and kid's fun run to honor the memory of their son -- who enjoyed sports, the outdoors, and making memories with his friends. The Vargas family looks to continue to honor their son's memory with the 5K and fun run every year.

"Hopefully we continue to get more participants, we had over 300 with same day sign up maybe reaching 350 so hopefully we could surpass that. Our goal was way under that you know so we believe we serve a great God and he did great things here today and the people in the community showed up for us," added Vargas.

The proceeds from the race will go to create a scholarship for a graduate of Horseheads High School in the future.