Midnight Marathon

Volunteer Stories – Midnight Marathon

This ‘Midnight Marathon’ idea was submitted by Kirrily from the Cancer Council in Frankston as a part of our ‘Volunteer Stories’ Series.  We are committed to saving school and club volunteers from having to “reinvent the wheel” all of the time and this series aims to do that by sharing real life stories from other volunteers. If you have an idea to share (good or bad, small or huge), we would be most grateful if you would submit it here.

Organisation: Cancer Council Frankston

Submitted by: Kirrily

Summary

Participants start running their own personal marathon (or half) at midnight during the local ‘Relay For Life’.  Its the only event where there is no cut off time, it’s fully supported, and there’s a toilet and drink station every 420m – 100 laps of the athletics track will do that for you.

The top 3 things about this idea or event

1. Each participant is asked to fundraise just $200. This is done by the regular bbq, cake stall, selling of lap beads to keep track of your laps.
2. There is no other event like it, you get to run a marathon under lights with full support.
3. I can dress up and enjoy.

The one thing you would have done differently

Train more, enjoy more, smile more!

Additional Comments

The event itself attracts around 700 participants. The marathon (and shorter distances) usually gain the support of about 40 people. Without the support of the volunteer committee, the “run” portion of the event would not go ahead. I am proud to be one of these lucky people.

Cancer Council Frankston | Fact File

Number of students/members: 700

Age range of students/members: 4 – 94

Number of active committee members: 10

What other fundraising activities do you do throughout the year?

• We have movie nights
• bbq’s
• Cake stalls
• We sell lap beads to keep track of how many laps you have done.
• There have been high teas, dinner dances and silent auctions too.

What are the previous purchases you have made with your fundraising proceeds?
 

• All proceeds go towards funding the research and support services of Cancer Council Victoria.