I guess I'll just start from the beginning. In the fall of 2022 I decide to host a Turkey Day 5k to help raise some money for the Dodge County Food Shelf. After the run my family and a couple of friends helped me serve up Bloody Mary's to participants age 21+. The first year we raised about $600 with 30 some people.
Last year I decided to go bigger. I ended up using a run sign up website to help with payment processing and registration. We had roughly 125 participants and were able to raise over $5000 for the food shelf! And yes, we had a bloody mary bar again with LOTS of fixins!
This year the goal is to hit $5500. I was able to get some business sponsors (I'm currently at 20, but would be thrilled to pick up a few more) to help cover the cost of participant shirts and anything above and beyond what covers the shirts will be donated to the food shelf. This makes it so 100% of the proceeds raised through the event registration will go to the Dodge County Food Shelf. So far most of my business sponsors are from the Kasson area with a couple from Old Concord and Dodge Center.
I started this event because every Thanksgiving I would drive to a different community and do their Thanksgiving day 5k and I started thinking to myself, why don't I just start one in Kasson and help out my own community? It made sense as I own the Kasson Mini Mall and my business, The Main Alternative is right there. It works well as there's space for participants to gather before the 5k (and 2.5k) start and there's plenty of space to hang out afterward, enjoy a bloody or hot beverage (provided by the Dodge County Salvation Army) and get to know other community members.
It's been so fun to watch this event grow in such a short period of time. I love running and promoting health and wellness (I'm a massage therapist) and I absolutely love being able to help out my own community. I'm also very lucky to have an extremely supportive husband and family/friends that go along with my crazy ideas and help me the day of the event. I couldn't do any of this without them.
I just wanted to get the word out about it so we can hopefully get between 150-200 participants for this year's event! You really can't beat starting Thanksgiving day of any better- exercise, bloody Mary's, hot drinks, snacks and comradery all while raising money to help others in our community.
There's a Facebook event page that people can follow to receive updates as well as check out the business sponsors. You can search for the event by typing in the Facebook search bar "3rd Annual Turkey Day 5k."
