Maritime Race Weekend reached our 2015 goal!

Disclaimer: If numbers bores you, then so will this post!

For a director, the last stage of wrapping up the race season is finalizing the accounting and calculating our community donations. I’m the first to admit that math is not my forte. Luckily, the board of directors are responsible for the finances– not me.

I meet with the treasurer every month to review the revenue and expenses, but most importantly we make sure that the bills and taxes are paid on time. The only way that I can get through those meetings without falling asleep, is if I’m jacked-up on espresso. Rumour has it that our president may have actually developed a case of carpel tunnel from signing cheques – that’s a painful sacrifice for a volunteer position.

RELATED: How social media made Maritime Race Weekend a Canadian ‘it’ event

It was a difficult year for road races. Many reported lower turn-outs. Some experienced higher expenses. Maritime Race Weekend was fortunate to sell-out for the fourth year in a row. We didn’t increase our registration fees or size of the race, but unexpectedly had higher expenses due to the weak Canadian dollar. Then new expenses like traffic control and expo rental space made it more difficult for us to meet our community donations goal… but we did.

This year, Maritime Race Weekend is donating $27,900 to local community groups.

Two years ago, Maritime Race Weekend became a not-for-profit event. We created a board of directors and unanimously agreed that the priority would be to support local groups that rarely receive funding– like run clubs.

Run clubs make up twenty per cent of our participants and eighty-five per cent of our volunteers. In appreciation for our running community’s support, $10,000 will be given to three not-for-profit run clubs: Halifax Running Club, Heart & Sole Running Club and Truro Run Tribe.

Our donation will help them with things like insurance costs and club house fees. Next year, we are thrilled to expand our support within the local community to a run club called HaliFAST. The three original run clubs are all for adults and our new partnership with HaliFAST allows us to support both short and long distance runners for all ages.