January 24, 2014

VoluntEARing at the Tink Half Expo

As part of this year’s Project ME I decided my act of kindness for last week would be to voluntEAR at the Tink Half expo, and since my room reservation was for Thursday- Sunday and my fellow DisBroads where not arriving until Friday Thursday seemed like a great time to do it.

Volunteer shirt back 

As a volunteer you get a free volunteer race shirt, which in this case was a long sleeve purple t-shirt, a certificate, and a meal during your shift. If you work 2 or more shifts you also get a free theme park ticket, but I didn’t have the time for that.

I arrived to my 1:00 check in about 10 minutes fashionably late, but thankfully I wasn’t alone so no one noticed. I try to be on time, really I do, but something always happens to prevent it.

Volunteer shirt front After checking in at the volunteer check in table I was handed my shirt, a bottle of water and was instructed to fill out a name badge to wear during my shift. Since I was late I barely sat down and we were already breaking off into groups. It was then that I found my friend Tracy, who was also volunteering and she managed to get us a hook up to go upstairs and give out the race shirts!

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Although for me that was short lived because I got pulled and ended up going back downstairs to help distribute the shirts and bags for the kids’ races, which was fun and allowed me to keep an eye on the lines! Towards the end of the evening there were no lines so I ran over to print out my waivers and went from one booth to the next and picked up both my half marathon and 10k bibs in a matter of 5 minutes!!

All in all it was a pretty fun experience, and one I wouldn’t mind doing again, if given the opportunity!

Have you ever volunteered to help at a race before?

12 comments:

  1. I volunteered at the WDW marathon and half last year on race day! Thanks for telling us what it is like to volunteer at the expo, i'd like to try that some time!

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    1. I really think the races would be a lot of fun! I liked the expo, but there was a bit of down time, which is good and bad.

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  2. I would love to volunteer for a runDisney race/expo - I bet it would be fun! I haven't volunteered yet for a race, but actually it is one of my goals for 2014 :0) Glad you enjoyed your experience!

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    1. You should do it! It's always nice to give back, as well.

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  3. Sounds like you had a great time. I have volunteered at a local half marathon before and I had such a good time doing it. I love talking to the racers at packet pick up and cheering them on as they are running through the fuel stops!

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    1. It was so fun working the kids packet pick up too! They were so adorable and many of them where super excited to get their bibs!

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  4. I need to do this some time - glad you enjoyed it!!!

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    1. you really should, Kristen! It's a great way to give back to the running community!

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  5. One year, I want to volunteer at the expo and maybe at the Kid's races? Sounds fun!

    I love the volunteer tshirt! So pretty and wearable again. As much as I love my orange windbreaker, I have no idea when I'd wear it again.

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    1. I think the kids races would be a blast! They were so adorable!

      Yes, the shirt is definitely wearable!

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  6. Yay! I've volunteered at the Philly marathon and a local triathlon before - I love being on the other side of things. :)

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    1. Yes! I have ran so many races before I thought it was about time that I help out on the other side of things!

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