Bring Your Community Together With A Fun Run

Have you wanted to do something that can promote your local community? Maybe you want to help raise some funds to go towards your neighborhoods and the families that are most in need. Or perhaps you just want to bring everyone together to have some fun? There are lots of different things you might want to do, but have you ever thought about hosting a fun run?

There are loads of great reasons why you should host a fun run; here are some of my favorite.

• The kids can get involved. As this is a fun run, it shouldn’t be too long. It’s a good idea to have a run of around 5 kilometers that the adults can do, and then a shorter one (around 2 kilometers) for all the kids. You won’t want to push the kids to go too hard as they could easily injure themselves, so the children’s race should be fairly gentle. You might even want to encourage the kids to do it in fancy dress!

• It gives people something to work towards. People always love it when they have a goal to try and work towards, and a fun run is just the kind of thing that people enjoy preparing for! And then, once they’ve completed the race, they can feel really proud of themselves for achieving something!

• You can help keep the local community healthy. We all know that it’s super important to stay fit and healthy, but with our busy lives, it is incredibly difficult to fit in all the exercise we need. Well, if you organize a fun run, then you will be giving everyone who gets involved an excuse to get out there and start training. They’ll be running more each week and will probably lose any extra pounds that they might be carrying on their waist!

• It can be a great fundraiser. If you want to raise some funds for a local charity, then a fun run is one of the best ways to do so. Everyone who gets involved should try and get some money by asking their friends and family to sponsor them. If you have any other things going on on the day of the fun run, like some stalls, then you could ask these businesses to offer a small percentage of their profits to your charity of choice. Don’t forget that you should charge all runners for a place in the run so that you can cover all of your organizational expenses. It’s also a good idea to put some of the money you get from registration fees towards your charity donations.

So, as you can see, there are plenty of reasons why you might want to organize a fun run or your local community. Ready to start planning? Don’t worry, there won’t be as much to do as you might think – you’ll be able to plan the fun run alongside your usual work and family commitments. But, to keep things nice and easy for you, these following tips should help you get things done without too many problems.

Think About The Date

It’s important to think really carefully about the date on which you want to hold your run. Ideally, you should plan it for the weekend so you will get as many people involved as possible. It’s also important that you choose a weekend at which there are no other community events going on. Otherwise, you might not get as many people attending as you would like, because some people might decide to go to the other event. Plus, you need to think about the weather. If you end up having the run on a rainy or cold day, no one is going to have any fun. So, try and plan your big event for in the spring or the summer so that you are pretty much guaranteed great weather!

Look at that stability in Darwin’s max and low temperatures this week. @BOM_NT #weather pic.twitter.com/PZR203FS3h

— PT User (@MelbPTUser) November 21, 2017

Speak To Your Council

You should always speak to your council or local authority about your fun run. There might be some health and safety regulations that they will want you to abide by. Not only that, though, but the council might have to close some roads so that your runners can run in complete safety. Let your council know your intended route for the race and they will let you know whether they can close the required roads. If not, then they might have an alternative route that they might suggest to you. Your council will also be able to help you organize rubbish and refuse removal and disposal. As there will be lots of people at your fun run, there might be a lot of litter and rubbish. But don’t worry, as your council can help remove this in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.

Find Some Sponsors

It’s always a good idea to get some local businesses on board with your fun run as sponsors. This is especially important if you don’t have much money to put towards your fun run and could do with some extra financing. Most businesses and professional organizations will be up for sponsoring a charitable event such as a fun run as it is a great way for them to market themselves. That’s because, in exchange for some sponsorship to use to plan your race, you will have to put the business’s branding on your race t-shirts and any printed materials that you give out to attendees.

Plan Other Entertainment

You will probably be so focused on your main run, that you could forget to take care of all the people who aren’t involved in the run. For instance, all your runners will probably bring a few people to watch the race, so you need to plan some entertainment for these spectators. One idea is to get one of the marquees from www.dynamicgift.com.au/event-marquees-tents so that you can have some entertainment, like a band or a singer. If you have quite a bit of money to put towards your fun run, you might want to think about hiring some fair rides for the kids as well. People will love small competitions as well, such as tombolas and raffles. You might want to ask guests to donate prizes for these types of competitions.

Get Some Volunteers

Next, you need to find some volunteers to help you run the fun run on the day. There are lots of things that your volunteers will need to do. You should have a few people to stand at a number of points along the race route. These can help to direct your runners and they can also attend to anyone who gets into bother or needs medical attention. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get some volunteers who have medical experience. It’s also important that you get the St. John’s Ambulance involved as well for their medical expertise.

Plan Gift Bags

Lots of races give all the racers gift bags right at the end. These aren’t like the type of gift bags that you give at the end of a party, like the ones on www.kidspartybags.com.au.Instead, these gift bags should be filled with mementos that all the runners can keep to remind them of taking part in the fun run. It’s a good idea to attend some races to see the types of things that organizers put in these bags, but more often than not, they include things like a race t-shirt, medal, and something to boost their energy levels, like an energy bar or a piece of fruit.

Let The Press Know

One other good point is to remember that you should contact your local press so that they know about your upcoming event. They can help you promote the event so that you get as many runners signing up as possible. But not only that, though, they will also be able to send a journalist and a photographer on the day so that they can write an article about how much of a success your race was. It’s a good idea to try and get as much as press coverage as possible so that you drum up a lot of publicity – this will, hopefully, increase interest in your fun run so that you can organize a second one the following year. You never know, you might even be able to turn this into an annual event!

Get Some Food

It’s a good idea to get a couple of street-food companies on board with your event as well. Your racers can then fill up with lots of healthy food after they’ve finished. All of the spectators can grab a bite to eat during the race, and they could watch the race with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

So, as you can see, organizing your own fun run isn’t going to be all that difficult. As long as you follow all of the above tips, you will be able to get a big event off the ground in no time at all.