By Hank SabineThe residents of Medicine Park received great applause from the SoS committee, racers, and visitors for the Town's efforts, volunteers, and maintenance. Examples of comments were, "We didn't realize there was such a beautiful place!" "You people have certainly turned this place around!" and "We're coming back to visit soon."
What we didn't earn were the dollars we projected as many people did not walk across the bridge and enter the town center. This issue will be addressed and resolved before next year's event.
The race event was moved to the ball field area to lessen the impact on Park residents at our request. We were too successful.
The weekend, for the racers, went exceedingly well. We had 150 for Saturday's Mount Scott run and, on Sunday, another 1155 runners for a total of roughly 1300. Last year, we had 421 racers. Our volunteers came from all over with heavy Park participation. Medical, Police, and Emergency workers from agencies throughout the region provided excellent support. Our own First Responders rendered aid at a critical time to a vendor who choked on food Saturday. Their efforts were observed by other trained personnel from other agencies and they, too, received high praise.
No runners, volunteers, or visitors were seriously injured – although many were very tired or had running injuries. I don't have race results yet but will soon and I'll send the information to Muriel for the blog.
There were "Parkie" fingerprints all over this year's event:
Clark Brown designed the tee-shirt logo for this year's event.
Muriel Fahrion designed the logo and comic book for the "Prairie Dog Skamper. She and Michael set up an inter-operative web page so kids could chat with Skamper.
Betty Cooper worked with the SoS Volunteer Director and filled in when the Director had to leave town for a family emergency.
Randy Hanson, Ed Stonerock, Mike Hibbetts, and Merlin Nesiba volunteered to patrol the downtown and ball field area from 10-until 2 in the morning, Saturday night/Sunday morning, to give Chief Rod McKee and his officers some time to get rest.
Lee Hibbetts and the Marauders who, again, performed as troopers [with Honors to Candace McCoy who pulled a muscle during the race and still played her role as Floozy].
We had great media coverage for Medicine Park. The SoS Staff did all they could to ensure we received exposure and local media covered the event (and Medicine Park) heavily.
The race was a great success and will only grow. Yes, there were glitches and I apologize to anyone who was inconvienced. I ask that we all remember the basic reason for the event – to raise money for cancer treatment centers in Altus, Lawton, and Duncan. Although we didn't draw the crowds into the Park we expected, The Park benefited from great media coverage and displayed itself as a "growing jewel" in the Wichita Mountains.
The Residents of Medicine Park can take a real bow. You earned it.
Note: Hank Sabine represented the town in the Spirit of Survival planning and execution.
