Volunteers Rally
The inaugural Illinois Marathon was near cancellation due to the lack of volunteers as of March 16, 2009. The event had about 100 volunteers and needed about 100 to 150 more in order to hold the race safely. Local officials set an April 1, 2009 deadline for the event planners to have enough staff to keep the 7,600 runners safe at the 311 intersections crossed during the race. Lt. Jon Swenson of the Champaign Police Department said, "There's people coming from all over the continental United States and four foreign countries, and it's not something you can cancel on a moment's notice, we indicated our concerns to them about the urgency to get their volunteers secured so we know we're prepared to move forward with the event." After the information that the marathon might get canceled was made public, 350 people volunteered within four days.
Read more about this topic: Illinois Marathon
Famous quotes containing the words volunteers and/or rally:
“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I ... once witnessed more ardent emotions between men at an Elks’ Rally in Pasadena than they could ever have felt for the type of woman available to an Elk.”
—Anita Loos (1888–1981)