Reception Held for Montgomery Marathon Sponsors
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Montgomery’s first full marathon is this Saturday and runners are gearing up for it.
But the race’s sponsors have also been working hard behind the scenes to put on a successful event.
They met tonight at Montgomery’s newst restaurant to reflect on their hard work.
Before runners take their marks on Saturday, those responsible for putting it together took a load off Thursday evening at Blackfunn Ameripub Restaurant. The race sponsors were able to eat, drink and meet each other.
“You don’t put together something that costs this much without Hyundai Motor Manufacturing of Alabama, Baptist Health, Publix, all of our sponsors and that’s who we’re really celebrating here today,” says Greg Miles of Montgomery MultiSport.
Miles will join Alabama News Network Saturday live on air as a race analyst. He says the marathon has come together much better than expected, with large corporations bringing in big numbers.
“We had some large groups sign up so the Alabama School of Nutrition signed up and they’re bringing 203 ladies to do the 5K.”
Money from the marathon will go to four local charities, Child Protect is one of them.
“We see about 550 children every year,” says Executive Director Jannah Bailey. “98 percent of what we see is child sex abuse allegations.”
Child Protect is a non-profit that assists law enforcement and the Department of Human Resources in child abuse cases.
“Everything goes to direct services of the children that we serve,” Bailey says. “It provides a forensic interview of the children, which means we talk to the children about the allegations. It also provides counseling. We never charge the families for counseling.”
And others are also helping out the community by sponsoring the race. Thad Beaty, the guitarist for the country band Sugarland, is in town from Nashville as an ambassador with Newton Running. Beaty organizes athletes and musicians to do charitable things in cities where races occur.
“My thought is as we come in and close down your streets and do all the other commotion that we do just so we can have a good time, my hope is that we do some things that leave an impact after we leave,” he says.
