The Green waste facility will not open until about 12:30 PM or so on Saturday in honor of Kathryn Ensign and so that our town employees may attend her services. It will stay open until 2 PM or later as demand necessitates.
A letter of thanks that was sent to our volunteers.
Dear Huntsville Marathon Volunteer-
Thank you so much for all of your hard work in making the second annual Huntsville Utah Marathon an outstanding success. This event was a positive community event that showcased the Town of Huntsville and our wonderful Ogden Valley. This was also a first class race for all of the runners this year with our Winner Mario Marcias setting the fastest time in the last two and a half years in Utah. (Bested the following weekend by a record performance at the St. George Marathon!)
We had over 1700 runners registered, (606 for the full, 930 for the half, 106 for the 10K, 101 for the 5K) plus the kids run with over 50 participants. There were over 400 volunteers involved with parking, crowd control, runner support activities in the Town Park, Aid stations on the course, course set up and take down, packet pick up Thursday, Friday and Saturday, registration during the year, Expo on Thursday and Friday in Ogden, Medical Services on race day, chip timing support for all four races, music and entertainment on the course, etc., etc., etc. It makes us weary to think back on all the activities and hard work necessary to pull off this type of world class event - thank you, thank you, thank you.
We also wanted to address a subject head on about the finances of the Marathon that some of you have asked about and about which you may have understandable concerns. The first year the marathon was sanctioned by the town with a committee of 5 volunteers and hundreds of others. The “profit” from the marathon all went to the town last year and amounted about $38,000 for the benefit of the Town of Huntsville. This profit was the net remaining from donations and registration receipts after all the bills were paid. (We actually were a little concerned the first year that the cost of putting on the race may be more than money taken in depending on turnout, but in the end things turned out fine.)
After the end of the first year, we realized that the effort to put on this marathon was larger than was practical for the town to handle every year and that the effect of elected officials whose interest could grow or wane from year to year could impair the ability to put on a world class marathon for years to come. We decided to set up a charitable foundation such as the Goal Foundation that runs the Ogden Marathon and other events. This foundation is called The Huntsville Utah Marathon and is a 501(3c) non-profit organization chartered with the State of Utah. There are 5 members on the board of the foundation which for the most part was the group involved the first year and are unpaid volunteers. Since the Town certainly would still like to benefit, even if the Marathon would be managed by a foundation, an agreement was set up that 30% of registration receipts would go to the town off the top before expenses. So the town will always benefit as it should and the foundation has to work hard to ensure we stay solvent from year to year and maintain sufficient operating reserves.
We don’t have final numbers for this year, but as important volunteers for the marathon, we want to share with you approximately how we believe things will play out. Registration for the 4 races totaled about $109,000 of which the town will receive 30% . The remainder of the registration receipts and sponsorship donations will be used to pay expenses for the event of which a sampling of the major items are listed:
Item Estimated approximate Cost for 2013
Shirts $20,000.00
Timing $5,000.00
Porta potties $4000.00
Barricades $4000.00
Buses $7,000.00
Rental, tents, tables heater, chairs, etc. $7,000.00
Medals $7,000.00
Prize money to winners $3,000.00
Insurance $1,500.00
Runners bags $1,500.00
(we bid most of these items, so while we want to share this information with our important team of volunteers, sharing specific costs by item with others should be avoided for obvious reasons)
At this point it, appears that the total of expenses will be in the neighborhood of $60,000 to $75,000 for the 2013 Marathon. The remaining revenue after paying for the expenses for this marathon and the Town of Huntsville will probably be in the $10,000 to $15,000 range which will go to the foundation to build for reserves for future years when the financial result could be negative. We also expect we will have enough to make some charitable donations to worthy organizations in the Valley, so we will be supporting the entire Ogden Valley in addition to the substantial support for the Town of Huntsville.
None of the members of the foundation board are paid and work as volunteers and actually by the time we spend money on travel, etc., the effort is certainly not financially beneficial to any of the board members, same as for all of the rest of our volunteers. As a 501(3c), our financial records are public and can be viewed by all at http://www.guidestar.org/ (each year’s results for any nonprofit are filed at year end and available on line in the spring of the following year)
We will comment that the workload is significant for an event like this and it is possible we may secure a compensated race director as is common in all races of our size. We are not sure on this point, but have begun to discuss the concept and want to make sure we have an organization in place that will continue to provide for a successful event year after year for our Town and Valley.
Thank you all again for putting on a great Marathon!
The Huntsville Utah Marathon Organizing Committee
