12 Days of Charities: Almaden Valley Run Turkey Run

The third day charity spotlight goes to The Almaden Valley Run Turkey Run (AVRTR).

In 2007, Scott Kimmel along with his wife Colleen and his sister decided to run in the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. After their experience, they considered starting their own run around their community on Thanksgiving day. This included talking with neighbor David Ralston, who is now one of Kimmel’s Vice Presidents.

The next year, in 2008, the fun run began with just 17 runners. It was also in 2008 that Kimmel realized his closet was quickly filling with running shoes. That year he also discovered Soles4souls, an organization that collects new and used shoes and delivers them to people in need all over the world.

In 2008, they collected 320 pairs of shoes. In 2009, with 160 runners, they collected 549 pairs of shoes. AVRTR, Inc. was officially started in 2010. Their main goal is to provide a fun, family-oriented race in our Almaden Valley neighborhood.  They encourage people to bring their families, neighbors, out-of-town relatives to get out and meet their neighbors while working off a few calories before a big Thanksgiving Day feast.  They also wanted to continue the success they had with shoe donations to Soles4Souls, so they have kept the race fee as shoes only.  They plan to continue that as long as they can, depending on sponsorships and/or donations.

The race is continually growing. In 2010 they had over 550 people show up to race on the cold Thanksgiving morning, 30 volunteers from Leland High School, and collected 1,113 pairs of shoes! For Scott Kimmel, AVRTR is about giving back to the Almaden Valley community.

“The shoe drive is special. That’s the part that keeps me motivated through all the hours.  It’s about helping out people through a very simple and painless act of giving up shoes you don’t even wear anymore,” says Kimmel.

Gearing up for the 2011 race, AVRTR is looking for additional help. They are looking for volunteer leads to help the volunteer staff on race day and they are looking for sponsors for the race to keep it cost-free for participants. If you are interested in getting involved, please take a look here.

 

 

Do you participate in or volunteer for a local charity? We would like to help promote your cause by featuring it here on our blog! Please let us know about the charity in a comment on this post or send an email to nichole@harringtoninsurance.com to let us know more.