Everyone in the community wins in ‘Race for the Arts’
Some 2,000 runners and walkers came out to the 12th annual Race for the Arts on Saturday, Aug. 28 at William Land Park in Sacramento. The 5 K (equal to 3.1 miles) fun run/walk and children’s fun runs began at 8:30 a.m. The goal of the annual event is to do three things when it comes to the local arts: first, raise funds; second, raise awareness and third, increase audiences.
The Race for the Arts 2010 raised funding, increased awareness and hopefully increased audiences for local arts programs. Last year's event raised $70,000 for local art programs. / Valley Community Newspapers photo by Danny Kam
Race for the Arts is a nonprofit organization that works to accomplish the three aforementioned goals for school music, drama and art programs. Event coordinator Sally Rice talked about some of the history of the event.
“We provide the vehicle to help everybody,” Rice said. “Every cent pledged to a program goes to that program.”
This year’s pledges are not due until Sept. 26, but in 2009 the event raised nearly $70,000 and Rice is confident that a similar number will be raised this year. In the past, according to Rice, recipients of pledge money have used it to purchase instruments or pay travel fees in order to take their acts to different parts of the world. All told, the event has benefitted an estimated 168 arts organizations since the event’s inception.
Along with the runners, some of whom show up in costumes, the event was decorated with 43 interactive booths designed to educate the patrons on different art programs in the Sacramento area. Among the activities for young and old alike was an instrument “petting zoo” where people thinking about taking up an instrument could go and physically feel what the instrument is like in their hands.
As far as the race itself, awards were given to the top three male and female finishers in 15 different age categories. All children’s fun run finishers received an award regardless of time. Anyone who missed picking up their award can pick it up at Fleet Feet Sports at 2311 J Street. To check and see if you won an award, go to www.raceforthearts.com and click the tab titled “Results, Awards, Photos.”
Steven Schenck, a 27-year-old from Sacramento, posted the best overall time of 15:54.5. The top women’s finisher was 34-year-old Sunnyvale resident Suet-Fei Li with a time of 17:44.9.
