Highlights of October HARRA Board Meeting
Each month, HARRA president Tom Stilwell e-mails to a group, that includes 71 e-mail addresses and is a very interesting cross-section of the Houston running community, his recap of HARRA's monthly Board meeting, which any HARRA member can attend. This e-mail is not in lieu of the monthly minutes that appear on the HARRA web site.
It is now held at the Memorial Park Club House on the 3rd Monday of every month beginning at 6 p.m.
Here are items that I felt appropriate to share with you, the rank-and-file runner:
+ As noted in my prior emails regarding the Just for Kids Run, the Houston Masters Sports Association agreed to provide some sponsorship for the event, and challenged others to do the same. This led the Runners High Club, Finish Line Sports, and the Chevron Houston Marathon to contribute enough to cover the costs of the event. In this year when traditional corporate sponsorship dollars have gone (appropriately) to aid victims of the hurricanes, it was awesome to see the clubs step up to support this event.
+ The Marathon Kids Program reported that HARRA had collected approximately 80 - 90 volunteers and the number was growing. By the way, the event on 10/22 at Rice University was really spectacular. If you didn't volunteer this time, you ought to consider it next time. All the volunteer tasks were relatively easy, and the sight of seeing the elementary school kids run the track was rejuvenating. Roberta McInnis sent a Houston Chronicle photographer to the event and also volunteered at the event. The Chronicle had a great picture of the event in last Sunday's newspaper.
+ Roger Boak also reported that the Practice for the Tour de Bayou has been well attended. The singlet and shoe awards from the sponsorship this year has been well received.
+ For the River Oaks Water Fountain, the architectural firm listed in the Houston Chronicle article declined to offer any assistance to our effort to get a water fountain placed on the esplanade across from (and separate from) the Rose Garden. However, an architect at Kirksey Architects has volunteered his time to prepare the specs and create a mock drawing / photo depiction of a water fountain on the esplanade so that it can be presented to the River Oaks Home Owners Association for approval. The Bayou City Road Runners have also located several current River Oaks residents who will support the water fountain.
+ The City of Houston and the Memorial Park Conservancy have started planning a new event based upon ideas presented by Chris Rampacek. The event will be a "Resolution Run" starting before midnight on New Year's Eve and finishing after midnight on New Year's Day. The event will be your last workout of the year, and the kickoff of your training / healthy living / resolutions for the new year. The run will be held in Memorial Park. Stay tuned for more details.
+ Memorial Park is considering adding concessions to the buildings at the Tennis Court area. I forwarded the email to this group on the day of the meeting. If you have any thoughts - pro or con, send them to me. I've been forwarding them to the appropriate persons at the City of Houston, and all the ideas and concerns have been well received. Stay tuned for more details on this as well, though I don't have any right now.
On the Marathon Kids program, Tom added the following in a separate e-mail today:
"Marathon Kids was organized very well and was a huge success. I think all of the kids had a blast and I think that they really got a lot out of having a big kickoff event like this for their program. It was also fun to watch them run 200 yards as hard as they can, and then see the realization hit that they had to run another 300 yards or so to the end. (Each wave of kids ran about 500 yards on the track.) Still, they would start chugging along and persevering to the finish just like all of us runners do. Any day you can help put smiles on kids faces is a good day in my book."
It is now held at the Memorial Park Club House on the 3rd Monday of every month beginning at 6 p.m.
Here are items that I felt appropriate to share with you, the rank-and-file runner:
+ As noted in my prior emails regarding the Just for Kids Run, the Houston Masters Sports Association agreed to provide some sponsorship for the event, and challenged others to do the same. This led the Runners High Club, Finish Line Sports, and the Chevron Houston Marathon to contribute enough to cover the costs of the event. In this year when traditional corporate sponsorship dollars have gone (appropriately) to aid victims of the hurricanes, it was awesome to see the clubs step up to support this event.
+ The Marathon Kids Program reported that HARRA had collected approximately 80 - 90 volunteers and the number was growing. By the way, the event on 10/22 at Rice University was really spectacular. If you didn't volunteer this time, you ought to consider it next time. All the volunteer tasks were relatively easy, and the sight of seeing the elementary school kids run the track was rejuvenating. Roberta McInnis sent a Houston Chronicle photographer to the event and also volunteered at the event. The Chronicle had a great picture of the event in last Sunday's newspaper.
+ Roger Boak also reported that the Practice for the Tour de Bayou has been well attended. The singlet and shoe awards from the sponsorship this year has been well received.
+ For the River Oaks Water Fountain, the architectural firm listed in the Houston Chronicle article declined to offer any assistance to our effort to get a water fountain placed on the esplanade across from (and separate from) the Rose Garden. However, an architect at Kirksey Architects has volunteered his time to prepare the specs and create a mock drawing / photo depiction of a water fountain on the esplanade so that it can be presented to the River Oaks Home Owners Association for approval. The Bayou City Road Runners have also located several current River Oaks residents who will support the water fountain.
+ The City of Houston and the Memorial Park Conservancy have started planning a new event based upon ideas presented by Chris Rampacek. The event will be a "Resolution Run" starting before midnight on New Year's Eve and finishing after midnight on New Year's Day. The event will be your last workout of the year, and the kickoff of your training / healthy living / resolutions for the new year. The run will be held in Memorial Park. Stay tuned for more details.
+ Memorial Park is considering adding concessions to the buildings at the Tennis Court area. I forwarded the email to this group on the day of the meeting. If you have any thoughts - pro or con, send them to me. I've been forwarding them to the appropriate persons at the City of Houston, and all the ideas and concerns have been well received. Stay tuned for more details on this as well, though I don't have any right now.
On the Marathon Kids program, Tom added the following in a separate e-mail today:
"Marathon Kids was organized very well and was a huge success. I think all of the kids had a blast and I think that they really got a lot out of having a big kickoff event like this for their program. It was also fun to watch them run 200 yards as hard as they can, and then see the realization hit that they had to run another 300 yards or so to the end. (Each wave of kids ran about 500 yards on the track.) Still, they would start chugging along and persevering to the finish just like all of us runners do. Any day you can help put smiles on kids faces is a good day in my book."
posted by WalkSports.com | 4:55 PM
2 Comments:
Great info Jon! I would like to help with the Kids program. I will check to see if I am free.
A few years back HARRA moved the Kids Runs to the same day as the Tour de Memorial. Unfortunate. Never-the-less, we always have folks who make a beeline to the Kids Run after finishing their Tour de Memorial. You can do both.
Cheers, Steeeve
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