Murphy – The Rotary Club of Murphy held its first Gobble Gallop fundraiser Saturday afternoon at Buck Bald Brewing downtown, but athleticism wasn’t required at this fun event.
With close to 50 participants, “race” organizer and club president-elect Jacky Egli said the turnout can only grow from here when everyone sees what a good time the 0K race is. The inspiration for the race was brainstormed and solidified over a Mother’s Day brunch in May.
“My son and step-mom were talking about having seen something similar – but instead of an actual race, it’s just for fun, and then we joked about what if it were a 0K race instead of even a 1K,” Egli said. “That was the birth of the idea, and I brought it Rotary as a fundraiser for our Interact and Early Act clubs in local schools.”
Those clubs include involvement at both the high school and elementary levels. The goal of the clubs is to involve students in leadership experiences by spurring action in the community to include beautification projects and globally focused service projects, including clean water programs such as Wells for Nora in foreign countries.
When finding sponsors, Egli had no trouble considering that both Buck Bald Brewing and Smoky Mountain BBQ have helped with past fundraisers, including the popular Jail ’n’ Bail, which “incarcerates” local business owners and civic leaders for a “donation” for bail.
“Both Matt [of Buck Bald] and Dave [of Smoky Mountain BBQ] had helped last year,” Egli said, “so it was a natural fit since they’ve been so supportive of our past activities.”
Mayor Tim Radford, also a Rotarian, was on hand to give an “egg-spressive” speech to spur on the “turkeys” to victory, since everyone was winner. Dan Valentino, dressed as Tom Turkey himself, urged every participant to gobble their hearts out as they fluttered and flapped their wings to the finish line.
Two participants, Stacy Warnock and Andria Overstreet, one-upped the turkey trot by mimicking “Chariots of Fire” with their slow-motion antics toward victory.
Based on the success of the this year’s event, the club hopes to make it a semi-annual one, with a Bunny Hop near Easter in 2024 and the Gobble Gallop again next November.
The Early Act club at Ranger Elementary School plans to involve fourth-graders and the school’s PTA in raising funds for the Ronald McDonald House with a pop-top collection drive, where the tops of soda cans are collected and returned for monetary donations.
Egli said portions of this year’s funds will help augment trips to the national Rotary Club conference for high-schoolers as well as the Rotary Reads program, which serves 36 local classrooms once a month from October through April. This programs also purchases and donates the books read to the classrooms.
Rotary Club International is proud to promote “service above self” as a way to engage youth in serving their community. The Murphy club, which meets at noon Mondays in Downtown, is always looking for more engaged volunteers with a penchant for community service.
Details: Visit rotaryclubofmurphy.com.
Watch a video of the event at youtube.com/watch?v=rYgBcBZ1qOI.