Students volunteer with Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon

Post written by Joshua Espinosa, IBY1 student, about his internship experience with the marathon

On April 26, 2016,  Rivertown Runners, through the RTR Outreach Fund, presented a check in the amount of $30,000, to benefit the local community charities and organizations.  These funds were raised directly from the 2016 Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon.  Rivertown Runners appreciated the assistance of the Village of Sleepy Hollow, Phelps Hospital, all the sponsors and volunteers.  It was a great community event.

When I applied for this internship I wasn’t expecting that I was going to  end up doing something I would really enjoy, not only that but I also wasn’t expecting that I was going to end up meeting new amazing people that I would learn so much from.

When I finally met the River Town Runners  (RTR) Outreach Board  that organizes the race every year, I was surely shocked and surprised of how well organized they were about such a big responsibility and task. They made it seem as something simple that you would plan the night before. Everyone had their role and responsibilities and worked efficiently to get everything ready for the race.  My task you ask? Well, as the intern everyone made fun of and took advantage of (just kidding) I had the responsibility to recruit thirty volunteers for the race so they could help out all throughout the event. This wasn’t easy since the majority of the students in my school were going back home that week for Spring Break vacation and weren’t available to attend the race. However, I worked hard with the help of others to obtain those thirty volunteers that would be part of such a worthy event that we will all look back to.

After many meetings of planning, the race finally had come.  On March 26, 2016 it was surely a good day to run and I was ready to start volunteering. I was assigned along with ten other volunteers the task of filling cups with water and gatorade for the runners and also filling baskets with fresh bagels and fruits. It was very pleasing to be appreciated by all the runners and it felt good to be helping them after long hours of running. Just the looks on their faces when they drank the cold refreshing water encouraged me to fill more cups for even more runners.

I was very happy to work with Mr.  Todd Ruppel one of the leaders who organized this race who guided me, instructed me, and taught me many things. He has a great sense of humor and is very knowledgeable. The whole race was a success and everyone was happy it turned out perfectly. We had a great turnout from the EF Academy student body, with close to 20 students volunteering to help with the race.