Braving the cold and wind, 123 participants ran or walked for the Fallon Theatre on Saturday, February 13th for the annual Valentine's Day Fun Run and Walk. This is the 7th year of an event that started in 2015 with a small number of participants and only a handful of sponsors.
Glen Perazzo and Karla Kent said they had the largest ever number of runners this year, and it was especially impressive due to the cold and windy weather that day. There were a number of challenges for this year's run too, beyond just the weather. In addition to having runners grouped by age, they also to be grouped in waves to meet CDC social distancing requirements. Karla said, ”We had to have different waves so we had to have different start times within each wave to keep the groups to under 50 each.”
“Naturally the walkers are way slower so their names are not at the top,” said Kent. When asked if the walkers got some type of participation award, she and Glen laughed and he said, “No, but if they registered on time, they did get a t-shirt!” Eric Perazzo, Glen's son, designed the logo on the front of the t-shirt and a simple change to the year will make it reusable for next year's race t-shirts.
There were six age categories per gender (male and female), with recognition for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places winners in each category. The first place winners by age category and gender are as follows. Kutovea Stevens, male and Zoey Brown (female) age 19 and younger; Christopher Burton (male) and Kandice Whitaker (female) age 20 – 29; Francisco Tapia (male) and Gina Dini (female) age 30 – 39; Michael Dowler (male) and Kathryn Bozzi (female) age 40 – 49; John Lockwood (male) and Cynthia Olivo age 50 – 59; Marc Reynolds (male) and Jaime Dellera (female) age 60 and up.
When the fun run first started out in 2015, the event was held in the alley behind the theatre. In 2017 the event was moved to the courthouse like the county-sponsored New Year's Day run. Since then, it was brought to the front of the theatre and held on Maine Street.
The growth in popularity of the run in the past 7 years keeps increasing, and so too do the proceeds that go into the theatre renovations. If you haven't been inside the Fallon Theatre lately, you should stop by to see what has been done. It's being beautifully restored, with arched ceilings in the front areas that are reminiscent of the grandeur of years ago. Karla went on to say, “The participants get at-shirt if they registered by January 31st. So when people were signing up the day before the race, I would tell them that they were not going to get a t-shirt. They would say that didn't care, they just wanted to support the theatre. We had a lot of that and I think that is why people came out despite the weather.” We discussed the number of participants given the chilly weather that day, and joked that maybe it got some participants to run or walk a little faster.
There were 12 volunteers this year and that number also continues to grow. The Fallon Theatre Board members are always recruited to help out, and the entire board came out this year to help. Extra help was especially needed this year to keep track of the waves of time starts and to ensure that the participants didn't get bunched up.
The theatre is also fortunate to have Frank Giles assisting with the event each year. Frank is an avid runner and he started helping out about 5 years ago. He promotes the run and organizes the route for the run. Cindy Wright from the Churchill County Parks and Recreation Department has helped on event day to organize the waves and to keep track of the start times, and had helped out last year as well. Both of them have been incredible volunteers for the theatre. The theatre has partnered with Parks and Rec in the past by hosting the county's New Year's Day after-run party at the theatre, creating a partnership history between the two. Karla said, “We do look for ways to work together.”
The sponsors of this year’s event were Kent’s Supply, GEM Drafting, Berney Nelson Team, Financial Horizons Credit Union, Cheek Construction, Silver State Roofing, Dr. Stuart Richardson O.D., Bill’s Lawn Care, Hillside Dairy, D’s Automotive Machine and Bighorn Repair.
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