Celebrate! West Hartford FUNd RUN a Resounding Success - We-Ha

More than $12,000 was raised for the West Hartford Town That Cares Fund and the Leisure Services Scholarship Fund.

West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor poses in front of the Noah Webster statue after completing the Celebrate! West Hartford FUNd RUN June 2020. Photo credit: Sofie Brandt

By Ronni Newton. Photos by Sofie Brandt and Linda Geisler

The first weekend of June was sunny and warm – but otherwise very different from what the Celebrate! West Hartford committee would have foreseen several months ago.

“The events of these past weeks and months have made for many changes to life as we know it,” Celebrate! West Hartford organizer Linda Geisler said in an email to the committee. “The absence of the Celebrate! West Hartford arts & crafts show, festival, and road races this past weekend is but one sign of our altered, but temporary, way of life … for now. Town Hall was eerily quiet on Saturday when it should have been bustling with music and shopping, rides and people congregating and connecting. On Sunday the grounds were filled with folks peacefully speaking out in sorrow, anger, and desperation but unfortunately, not in celebration, which over three decades has become the hallmark of the first weekend of June in West Hartford, CT.”

Geisler was happy, however, to have salvaged one of the event’s key missions – support of several vital town programs.

Nearly 600 people registered for the Celebrate! West Hartford FUNd RUN – the reimagined event that had the tagline “run apart, give together” – and with the addition of donations and sponsorships, more than $12,000 was raised in support of The Town That Cares Fund and the Leisure Services Scholarship Fund.

Participants were given the opportunity to run any distance, anywhere, and could record their statistics through Platt Systems, which ordinarily tracks the results of the annual 5K. Runs could be completed any time on June 5-8, but on Saturday morning there was a photo opportunity available in front of the Noah Webster statute on South Main Street.

Geisler shared the following statistics from the race:

597 registrants for the FUNd RUN
106 individuals made donations in addition to registering
11 organizations supported the event as cash sponsors or with in-kind donations

19 participants live out-of-state in 9 different places including California; Washington, DC; Hawaii; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New York; Oregon; Virginia; and Washington
87 years was the oldest participant
5 octogenarians in all

135 people recorded their runs via Platt Systems
457.06 miles were recorded by participants

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