Donations Make the Race Happen
I ain’t gonna lie: Your registration fees don’t cover all our costs. So how do we make the race happen with all the bells and whistles? Aside from the fact that we don’t get paid?
Donations. And those donations come in a couple different forms. Some are community business making in-kind donations, like food. Or massage. Or medical care. Or music.
And some are cash. Cash both from corporate partners and cash from runners who see what we are doing and can afford to help out with a few extra (tax-deductible) bucks.
We are simply trying to keep the race as accessible as possible to as many community members as possible. Just a big, fun, athletic, community party.
We aim to have a few dollars left over. And when we do, we donate.
At first, donations went into the actual trail, and you can see some of our trail improvement efforts here. You know that long bridge on the Leatherstocking Trail with the turns that are dangerous when wet? Well, $10,000 came from our little group to help build it.
When the pandemic hit, and the race was cancelled, we donated $10,000 to help feed front line workers (and then raised an additional $25,000 after that) and spent thousands more creating 3,000 masks for free distribution to the community at a time when masks couldn’t be found. Many of you that had registered with the stupid-cheap price months earlier told us keep the money so we could do this.
The trails are in great shape now, and the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror. So we have turned our sights to local groups. This has included Paine Cottage, Hope Community Kitchen, the Girl Scout troop you see at mile 11, the Boy Scout troop you see at mile 4, and the New Rochelle High School Cheerleaders you see at the start and finish. We’re not just about Thomas Paine colonialism, after all, but go full bore on the Norman Rockwell angle, too. Yes, he also lived in New Rochelle, for 13 year, just 1.1 miles north of the start line.
So. If you would like to help out and kick in a few extra bucks because you already have an awesome deal, you can do so at this link.
And if you happen to work someplace that wants to get involved helping out, we would love to expand our existing list of partners.