Volunteers help ‘run the show’ at River Bank Run
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It takes a lot of sweat and tears to get to reach the finish line of the River Bank Run. But the work to make sure the road to that finish line is a smooth one starts months before runners step off.
Eleven days and counting before the race and finish line volunteers were hard at work.
What goes into being a finish-line volunteer? Just ask two-year volunteer Chelsea Coretti.
“We take care of everything,” said Coretti. “We make sure the finish line is set up, all of our sponsors are well represented, that everything is safe and secure.
On this day, finish line volunteers were at Amway headquarters, packing medals, t-shirts and other items that will be handed out to runners on race day.
“A lot of people think the finish line is just the day of, but it’s a lot of this beforehand. We do all of the setup the night before. All of the signs and banners you see are all our team. Then we are there all day on race day,” said Nicole Veenstra, finish line volunteer coordinator.
“The medal sorting is an essential part of the build-up to race week. We had a group yesterday that did volunteer shirts. We had another group in earlier this morning that worked on some other giveaway-type packing,” said Steve Morrow, River Bank Run operations director.
Behind it all are the people organizers call the muscle behind the race. It takes about a thousand volunteers to pull off the nation’s largest 25K.
“Not a lot of people want to give up their Saturday. But there are people that, year after year, we get to come out and volunteer, cheer on the runners and take care of everything we need,” said Morrow
These volunteers don’t have fans cheering them on along the course, and they don’t have medals to drape around their necks at the finish line. But they’ll be the first to tell you there are definitely rewards.
“When the runners cross the finish line, we get that euphoric feeling of handing them their medal and getting to share all the emotions that they’re feeling at the end of the race,” said Coretti.
If you’ve thought about volunteering, but still aren’t quite sure — just ask Coretti.
“I tell everyone, you need to volunteer because there’s no better feeling!”
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