The question of whose face and legacy should be attached to a recent local fundraiser had an easy answer.

When the event is a road race and the town is Hopkinton, there’s Tom Walton and then there’s, well, Tom Walton.

“He was always an instrumental person for my son,” said Norm Goupil, the assistant cross-country coach at Hopkinton High School. “He gave advice and he coached, before and after races. He made my son the runner he is today, and he always gave him the push he needed.”

Everyone in and around Hopkinton says the same thing about Walton. That he treated great runners like they were great runners, and slow runners like they were great runners. He coordinated efforts to introduce new races to the area. He coached on the high school and college levels, kicked butt in the senior divisions of various road races and did everything with that same Tom Walton smile that everyone knew so well.

Shockingly, Walton, a fitness fanatic, lean and strong, died from a heart attack eight months ago. But when Goupil, the head coach at Hopkinton, Rob Rothe, and Ellen Raffio, wife of Northeast Delta Dental CEO Tom Raffio, joined forces to raise money for Hopkinton’s track and cross country programs, a perfect storm surfaced.

Beyond his son, Goupil said he, too, learned from Walton, adding, “He inspired me to be a better runner.”

Add Raffio’s connection – she stages road races with Delta Dental’s backing and also ran for Walton in high school in the 1980s – and this was a no-brainer when it came time to choose who should be out front of the fundraisers for Hopkinton’s track and cross country programs.

The race was held last month at Elm Brook Park. Around 100 people participated, including members of the teams that would benefit from the proceeds.

The race raised about $2,500, in part because the Hopkinton High track and cross country teams added another $1,500 to the final tally, with money going to upgrade the two programs while benefiting the Tom Walton Scholarship Fund.

“We gave a nice chunk of money to them and we also had money for us to improve our facilities,” Rothe said. “It was not just money for us, so we could focus on a cause and Tom was involved in that with Delta Dental. He was a big person and an entity in the running community.”

Said Goupil, “This was just to bring awareness about someone who gave so much back.”

Goupil, coaching in his first year at Hopkinton High, got things rolling. He said the facilities and equipment were below par at the school. He called Raffio, seeking help from a woman who’s teamed with her husband to create a sponsorship giant in the road racing community.

Raffio agreed to help. Goupil suggested that Walton’s name be linked to the event. He knew Walton. He’s run events in Walton’s annual, eight-event Capital Area Race Series (CARS) the past few years as an adult. He learned from the master, as did his son.

“Tom always helped anyone who needed it,” Goupil said. “He had a big heart, he was a Hopkinton resident, he was a supporter of public education and it was great to use our legs to give back to the community.”

Walton was about more than winning races and high-octane competition. He used meditation in the locker room when he coached the Concord High boys’ hockey team more than 30 years ago, ruffling some feathers by incorporating gentleness and calm into a rough contact sport.

He ran races and organized them, and he loved to kayak. He was easy to sport around town because “the kayak was always on top of his car,” Raffio said.

And this event, organizers hope, will always be part of the town’s landscape, becoming an annual event that will grow next year because there was limited time to organize this one.

“It’s just going to get better,” Goupil said. “We’ll have more time to plan it and promote it and make it more of a terrific event for the community.”

The name attached to the race will certainly help.

“He had such an impact on so many people,” Raffio said. “His name is brought up to me every single day since he died. That is the kind of impact he had.”