An Englishman's View of the Benton Park 5K

There's not a lot happening in Benton Park area at 4.45 am on a Saturday morning, even the night shift at Benton Park Cafe were shocked to see me at that time, it could be that folk my age are usually curled up doing Darth Vader impressions, but I'll take the assumption that they thought I was heading home after removing money from a local casino, delusion and reality are very close cousins!
The reality was a little more mundane...it was the BPNA 5k Run, that hour of Lycra and Sweat where pretty people run and curvier people dress up and organize....barriers were being delivered, routes cleared, pretty arrows laid down and that lifeblood of all events, coffee for volunteers, was being ground..Slowly Killeen Towers and Benton Park came to life, the Cities Finest (aka the Village People Tribute) arrived to Serve and Protect, Det Betts and peers elicited as many compliments from the him, her and rainbow sections as the runners did...
Tables and tents, water and beer, pretzels and ribbons all took their place in readiness for the eighties to reappear, and the Lycra came, the Delorean came, and I became all too aware that my Ghostbuster costume had arrived at a size called "snug"
After dozens of meetings, fundraising and envelope stuffing we were there, a start line, almost 500 runners and the professionals who do this every week, Big River Running, and without further ado they were running...Our sound engineer, Aaron Wolfe, did a sterling job managing to run the music and microphones whilst Crockett, Tubby and Elmo did an interpretation of YMCA.....I don't remember the name of the chap who won in 15.51 min, but he doesn't care too much about me, that's not what a fun run is about, it's just folk getting together, volunteering, being serious, being silly, but being a community.
We got back to Killeen Towers around 2:45pm the Park was spotless, the runners were home and the last sign has been taken down....but the remaining image for me was little Clementine giggling as she handed out the pretzel medals at the finish line, so maybe everyone won?

Ian Keith, An Englishman in Benton Park

June 2nd : Summer Concert Series Kick-Off!

Hey, folks!

It's that time of year again.  Time to kick back, relax, and spend some time with friends, family and neighbors in beautiful Benton Park.  After our very successful 80's 5K Run, Walk, Stroll last weekend, I think everyone is officially ready for the season that brings great weather and tons of fun.

June 2nd: Blues in Benton Park officially kickstarts the 5th annual Concert Series, so mark your calendars!  Just some of the things you can look forward to:

- Scooter Show

- Pet Adoption & Pet Chipping (Featuring Tenth Life Cats & Stray Rescue of St. Louis)

- Kids' Carnival

- Great Food, Drinks & FREE Concerts

  5PM - 7PM : Nikki Hill

  7PM - 10PM : Murder City Players

In the meantime, keep visiting our website for updates and future events - and tell all of your friends and family to come join you at this fun, family friendly event.  See you there!

If you are interested in giving a helping hand to the neighborhood and would like to volunteer at this event (or any others), there will be a meeting held on Tuesday May 29th, 7PM at 3015 Salena to finalize the details for the June 2nd event and start brainstorming for the July 7th event.

Thanks to all who made the Benton Park 5K a Big Hit!

 Thanks to all who made the 2012 BP 5K a big success!  We received lots of compliments from the runners, and we had zero incidents on the course.  It was a real team effort and could not have been done without your help. 

* A big thanks to Katie Evitts who took the reigns in the final 2 weeks.  She spent many late nights hammering out the details and turning our meeting notes into real direction for the volunteers.  The race does not happen without Katie's efforts.  Thanks too to Katie's sister Jill for all of her help.  She drove in from Indiana to help her sister.

* A special thanks to Cora for taking on the Elmo costume at the last minute.  She gave up her pride and perhaps 20 lbs for the cause.  Thanks Cora. 

* Mike Reisman did a bang up job with the course.  Thanks for bringing the runner's perspective to our committee. 

* Thanks to Lorna for getting the word out on Facebook about the event. 

* Cat Murray was great again with permits and details.  No race without the proper permits, so thank you Cat. 

* Barb D. took on the tying of 500 pretzel ribbons.  Whose crazy idea was that?  She organized the food booth and volunteer food too.  Thanks, Barb. 

* Without volunteers, we have no race.  Thanks to Betty Halloran, we had more volunteers than we needed.  I am still not sure how she did it.  Betty, you are a volunteer magician! 

* Thanks to Cat and David for a wonderful festival, which received raves from the runners and the biggest compliment of all from them, they stuck around after the race to enjoy all that Cat and David had arranged. 

* Ian did a great job with the announcements and helping with the set up and take down of the event, not to mention months of keeping our planning for the 5K light with his special brand of humor. 

* Thanks to Dan Killeen for all his help with promotion of the event and a special thanks for putting on the Elmo suit for the Girls on the Run race.  Way beyond the call. 

* Thanks to Ann Higby for all her hard work with promotion of the event, getting the word out with press releases and getting us on TV. 

* Thanks to Lysa and Guenther for providing consulting services with their experience from last year.  A special thanks to Stella for joining on TV to promote the event.  Also, thanks to Dan for sprucing up the park ahead of the race and getting the beer booth ready.

* Thanks to Rich LaPlume for tracking down food donations and taking on many labor intensive jobs like putting signs around the hood. 

* Thanks to Chris R. for getting the recycling effort up and running.

* Thanks to Laura for having checks and cash ready for the event.

* Thanks to the Parks Department for making the park look great and to Ken Ortmann for smoothing the way at City Hall for the event.

* Finally, thanks to the runners for coming to our little neighborhood and helping us support our work to build a fun, safe community for all to enjoy.  We hope to see you again next year! 

* And to all of those we failed to mention, thanks to you too.  What an event!