Y Monthly Monday Mission Update
A Thanksgiving for the Record Books!
There’s nothing quite like being a part of the Y Turkey Trot Charity 5K, where thousands of people come together at six locations across the region on Thanksgiving morning with friends, family and a host of complete strangers in celebration of health, exercise, and the joys of giving back.
This year, our 27th annual, was no different. Despite some persistent morning rain (which my ever-optimistic colleague Jovan Custis referred to on WBAL-TV as “liquid sunshine”), the Y community showed up and showed out in droves and turkey-themed costumes, making this year’s event an absolute home run! The joy on everyone’s faces, at both the start and the finish, is a constant reminder that this event occupies a unique and special place in the hearts of so many in this community. It embodies what makes the Y different from pretty much any other organization, as it brings together people from all walks of life and across so many points of difference for a common purpose and cause. We all know that this world can use a lot more of that!
Certainly if you go by the numbers, and I definitely like to do that, this year’s Y Turkey Trot Charity 5k was a record-breaker, with 15,951 humans and canines running, walking and strolling through the streets of Arnold, Bel Air, Ellicott City, Towson, Waverly and Westminster. That edged out the super-successful 2019 event by 247 registrants, which is more impressive when you consider that our usual surge of “day-of” registrations was suppressed due to the rain showers.
All this just proves that it takes an awful lot more than a little bit of rain to deter the Y community! It just doesn’t get better than this!
While the final accounting of everything will take a few weeks to finalize, we know that over $1 million in gross revenue was raised, with over $500,000 coming from individual donations and sponsorships alone. That’s a testament to our tremendously generous community, including lead sponsors Johns Hopkins, LifeBridge Health, Whiting-Turner, the Orokawa Foundation and Fulton Bank.
Of course, it takes an army to pull off an event of this magnitude. We are humbled by and grateful for our own army of kind hearted volunteers and talented Y associates who come together over months of hard work to make the Y Turkey Trot one of the biggest fundraising events in Maryland. This message would go on for pages and pages if I tried to name everyone, but please accept my personal thanks to everyone who pitched in. You are amazing.
As if all that weren’t enough, this year Thanksgiving at the Y started a day early, thanks to our friends at the Atlas Group, who generously opened the doors of the Choptank Restaurant in Fells Point to our Head Start families to be their guests for a bountiful Thanksgiving meal! The festivities were enjoyed by 185 Y Head Start families from across the region who were treated to a free Harvest Feast buffet featuring all the classics: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad and a sumptuous assortment of pies. What a wonderful way of giving back to the community by a great Y corporate partner.
I hope all of you and your families enjoyed a healthy, happy and peaceful Thanksgiving.
All the best,
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland