Students from the Southwick Powder Mill Middle School leave the starting line during the school’s annual Turkey Trot run. This year the event will take place Tuesday, November 26. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – With Thanksgiving just around the corner, students at Powder Mill are readying for it’s annual race/food drive to help Southwick’s food pantry stock up.
Next Tuesday, the school will be holding it’s “Turkey Trot”, with the starter pistol going off at 2:45 p.m.
The event will end at 4 p.m. and spectators will be able to donate canned goods and purchase long or short sleeve t-shirts for $10 and $7 apiece.
While most students looking to participate registered by the Friday deadline last week, Charles Joyal, Powder Mill’s assistant principal and the event’s organizer, is still accepting registrations.
Interested students and adults must present a fee of $2 and one canned good to run the mile race, which is a length Joyal believes comes as close to a one-size-fits-all distance as possible.
“It’s long enough for serious runners, but still short enough for those who wish to walk it and just participate,” he said. “There will be music playing, time keepers, and a big clock at the end of the race tracking participant’s times.”
Joyal, who started organizing the event in 2005, drew the inspiration from his own experience with a similar event while a student at Springfield’s Van Sickle Middle School.
“We did this when I was in school, and it’s stuck with me,” said the 44-year old Joyal. “It keeps kids involved. Well over 50 percent of students participate, and almost the entire staff as well, running and donating canned goods.”
“It’s grown into a schoolwide event,” he added. “School officials and physical education teachers have been behind it 100 percent.”
Since it’s inception at the school, Joyal said that Powder Mill alums, many of whom have gone on to run cross country for Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School, have become active payrticipants over the past nine years.
“As it’s grown, as they (students) go on to the high school, they come back to run it still,” he said.
The event has registered around 230 students as of Friday, which Joyal is encouraged by.
“Our numbers have changed. There was a time when we had over 600 students, but our numbers are consistent on where we have been,” he said. “(The event) has built a nice community spirit. The students understand that most of them will have a good meal this week, but some aren’t so fortunate, and that these donations will make a big difference.”
The afternoon event will also include raffle prizes which all competitors who finish the race are eligible to win, along with prizes for the winner of the girl’s and boy’s divisions of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.
