Jingle Bell Run to Honor Barbara Osen, Wife of Western Library's Rick Osen

Barbara Osen has fought severe rheumatoid arthritis so long and so successfully, with more than a dozen surgeries and revisions, that she often hears quips about being Bellingham's Bionic Woman.

Osen, 66, will be the special honoree Saturday, Dec. 8, at the 25th annual Jingle Bell Run/Walk, the Bellingham version of which she founded in 1988. However she figures the real honorees should be the thousands of participants and the dozens of volunteers.