On Saturday, October 24th, we are hosting our 18th annual Berks County Junior High “Run Off” Championships at Reading Fairgrounds. Sadly, Tom and Gwyn Chobot have stepped away from this event, so I am going to try to honor them, as well as “tweak” some things, in order to carry this very important event far into the future.
A few changes:
- Besides the boys’ and girls’ 7th/8th grade races, we will introduce a new .6 mile 6th grade open race (so 3 races instead of 2). The hope is that this will draw kids who might have looked at soccer or lacrosse towards what cross country is.
- Although this is, and always will be, a Pagoda Pacers event—I am looking (reaching out) for additional sponsors (in order to “lighten the load” financially for the club). Fleet Feet, Redner’s, Tower Health, Clean Eatz, and possibly a few others are being asked to help make this race a bit more financially stable. (It has always lost money, and shrinking cross-country participation is really making me nervous about the future). This should be viewed as a “community race,” so we need to see if the community is willing to pitch in—even a little bit.
- Besides selling shirts, I am also looking at selling a cross-country-specific poster. This will consist of all the participating schools’ mascots racing towards the finish line!!! (There will be limited printing just to gauge interest for the future).
What I am asking from the club is volunteers for race day. If you can be there by (at the latest) 7am-7:15am in order to help with parking, directing traffic, and registration (packet pickup)—as well as signing up the 6th graders (sign-up will be day of). Helping Ron Horn at the finish, awards, crowd control, and course cleanup/takedown. We have always been grateful for all the volunteers—and the more there are, the better off we are. Hope to have everything done and wrapped up by noon (ish). I am planning on using all of Friday to set everything up. I have been mowing the hill all summer—so I hope things will go smoothly (fingers crossed).
3 things I may need help with: The finish line blow-up banner. How do we collect $ from credit cards and such?
Any fabric banners that I can hang all over.
Thank you so much!!!! I can be reached at lechnerp@comcast.net or 610-478-1861 (leave a message).
Phil Lechner
