Whidbey Island Marathon - Association of Washington Cities

2011 Municipal Excellence Awards
Entry Form
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Community Service
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Hometown Spirit
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Small City Successes (pop. of 5,000 and under)
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Title of project
City/Town
Whidbey Island Marathon - "This is More Than a Race"
Oak Harbor
Form completed by:
Name
Title
Paul Schmidt
City Administrator
Address
City
Phone
Date
865 SE Barrington Dr
Oak Harbor
Zip
360-279-4501
April 4, 2011
Please mail/email this form with accompanying documents by
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 to:
Kate Cherrington
Association of Washington Cities
1076 Franklin St. SE
Olympia, WA 98501-1346
katec@awcnet.org
98277
Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards Category: Hometown Spirit Project: Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor City: Oak Harbor Page 1 of 5 THIS IS MORE THAN A RACE Project Statement The Whidbey Island Marathon is a new City of Oak Harbor public program that has captured the heart of our community as well as generated a great deal of enthusiasm. This event has provided additional community pride and generated unexpected participation by volunteer citizens, businesses, and City employees. Initially retained as a tourism draw, the Whidbey Island Marathon has now proven to be a new focus of community awareness and a celebration of “can do” spirit. Project Summary The Whidbey Island Marathon was established in 2002 and began as a full and half marathon event owned and promoted by an individual marathon enthusiast. From the first race in 2002 through 2009, the event grew to include up to 1800 participants. However, the race event and venue varied from year to year and was not always centered in Oak Harbor. Following 2009’s marathon, the event owner approached the City and explained that he wished to sell the rights to the event and could not guarantee the Whidbey Island Marathon would remain in Oak Harbor or even on Whidbey Island. At the time, the Whidbey Island Marathon was looked upon as a successful weekend event that filled local lodging and restaurants with participants, marathon fans and family members. However, it was also noted that the Whidbey Island Marathon appeared to be “losing steam” with fewer runners and without the same level of community excitement or investment in the race effort compared to past years. In other words, there was a sense the event could be in trouble if the race’s participation was waning and the event owner/promoter was making overtures that the Whidbey Island Marathon could move to another venue or cease to exist all together. Enter Oak Harbor Mayor Jim Slowik and the idea that the City could and should intervene in keeping the Whidbey Island Marathon on Whidbey Island and most certainly as an Oak Harbor based event. Following that lead, three initial goals were established and put forth as part of the public policy discussion for considering a move by the City to retain the Whidbey Island Marathon. The first goal being: Goal No. 1 Retain and keep the event from leaving Whidbey Island and the City of Oak Harbor. Negotiations ensued with the event owner/promoter and a tentative purchase arrangement was agreed upon ($50,000 spread over four years) with confirmation from the City Council as the final hurdle. Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards Category: Hometown Spirit Project: Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor City: Oak Harbor Page 2 of 5 After considerable deliberation concerning overall costs, risks, community acceptance and staff work load, the City Council approved the outright purchase of the Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor on August 19, 2009. The projected budget for the first year of the City owned event was $140,000. An interim loan from the General Fund provided the seed money to get underway. A big break arrived when the Mayor secured two major sponsors for the event. Waste Management, Inc. stepped forward to be the “Platinum” sponsor in the amount of $25,000 and Puget Sound Energy followed shortly with a “Gold” sponsorship of $10,000. These two sponsorships greatly helped provide financial security to ease City Council concerns and they also provided momentum within the community to demonstrate the City of Oak Harbor was serious about promoting a quality event. Achieving Goal No. 1 Thus the City Council became supportive of the proposal and the community became energized knowing the Whidbey Island Marathon would remain in Oak Harbor and, from all appearances, we were off to a great beginning. Subsequently, the first and most critical goal of not losing the Whidbey Island Marathon had been accomplished. However, retaining the event for future years would still be the overall challenge, and the only means to do so would be to put on a quality event. As City staff soon discovered, the real work was now about to begin. Goal No. 2 Enhance and improve the event by emphasizing sustainability of personal and community wellness. The City of Oak Harbor has a Parks Department to maintain park grounds and facilities, but has no staff available for recreation programs and relies exclusively upon the North Whidbey Parks and Recreation District to organize and provide recreation programs. The Whidbey Island Marathon is a significant event to promote, organize and facilitate and as such was too much for the District to take on as a recreation program. Subsequently, the new program fell upon the Mayor’s Office with the City Administrator and Administrative Assistant assuming the lead role for coordinating, budgeting, organizing, promoting and facilitating all the moving parts of a marathon race event. That year’s Whidbey Island Marathon event was scheduled for April 11, 2010. There was a lot of work and planning to do in just a few months! Starting from scratch, City staff gathered any and all information from past Whidbey Island Marathons and sought input from any experienced source available. It quickly became apparent there was an unexpected level of excitement among other City employees and then in the community overall, for the opportunity to be involved in the planning of and participation in a fun event. Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards Category: Hometown Spirit Project: Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor City: Oak Harbor Page 3 of 5 This was one benefit we didn’t fully realize or appreciate when proposing the purchase of the Whidbey Island Marathon. Given the opportunity to be involved and to help participate in positive activities, City employees and citizen volunteers will rise to the occasion to be a part of a successful event. Achieving Goal No. 2 Building on that new found enthusiasm, the City decided to add a 5K Fun Run the day before the marathon and a half marathon for greater community involvement and for City employees to further take part in the City’s Wellness Program. To encourage participation, the City offered complimentary registration to all City employees who registered for the 5K Fun Run and full or half marathon. The response was good where we had five (5) employees participate in the 5K Fun Run and two (2) employees run the half marathon. However, the real surprise came from those employees, elected officials and citizens who stepped forward to volunteer for the many tasks that are required to facilitate a marathon and half marathon event. We had 30 (thirty) City employees step up to volunteer their services on a Saturday or Sunday to take on many of the more difficult race type tasks such as staffing the late registration desk, handing out racing t‐shirts, setting up the finish line and providing clean‐up detail. In addition, we had a City Council member participate in the half marathon race and the Mayor and three other City Council members handing out medals and food snacks after the race. Moreover, we had approximately 340 volunteer citizens all step forward and sign up and attend training classes on working the water stations, working as course monitors and working as finish line assistants. All told, we did not anticipate the eagerness of our employees and citizens to want to help and be a part of this new event that now belonged to the City of Oak Harbor. The most gratifying part of enhancing the Whidbey Island Marathon was witnessing the human spirit rise up to participate directly in the 5K Fun Run (see Exhibit A). Goal No. 3 Grow and expand the event for greater positive economic impact to further promote City wellness and sustainability activities. The next and final goal of the City’s proposal to assume ownership and operation of the Whidbey Island Marathon, is to really make it the best event possible! In doing so, the Mayor and City Council emphasized their wish to promote the Whidbey Island Marathon as a sustainability component of mind, body and spirit through physical wellness and as a celebration of Whidbey Island’s beautiful setting. To that end, considerable efforts by the City were undertaken to market and promote the Whidbey Island Marathon as a marathon that is “More than a Race” (see Exhibit B). Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards Category: Hometown Spirit Project: Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor City: Oak Harbor Page 4 of 5 This type of campaign helped begin to set the City of Oak Harbor’s marathon event apart from other marathons and races in the Northwest and beyond. The underlying basis to promote the Whidbey Island Marathon also offered a unique opportunity to promote and showcase the City of Oak Harbor. Moreover, it became somewhat of a challenge for City employees and community citizens to demonstrate a “can do” attitude to put forth our best effort and show the world that the City of Oak Harbor can pull off a quality marathon event. The positive economic impact potential was also not overlooked. To have 2000+ race participants and followers come to Oak Harbor for the weekend provides a considerable boost to the local economy. The Island County Tourism Board tracts the annual tourist visits to Whidbey Island. For the year 2010, the Island County Tourism Board announced that 3 million visitors came to Whidbey Island, and the weekend of the largest contingent of visitors is during the Whidbey Island Marathon. A conservative figure of tourism dollars brought to Whidbey Island due to the Marathon is $600,000 (2000 participants X $300). Achieving Goal No. 3 Apparently the approach worked. On August 3, 2010 the Lonely Planet Tourism magazine article recognized the Whidbey Island Marathon as one of the Top Ten Places to Run a Marathon in the world (see Exhibit C & D)! This level of recognition will certainly help propel the Whidbey Island Marathon into greater prominence and provide greater participation which will help grow the event. The total race participation for the Whidbey Island Marathon event in 2010 was approximately 1950. The 2011 Whidbey Island Marathon is scheduled for April 9 & 10, and as of the date of this report, the registration numbers indicate we should realize approximately 2100 total race participants. From the budget standpoint, we projected an event cost of $140,000 for the 2010 Whidbey Island Marathon, based on what past cost figures we could glean from the private party who previously owned the race. As we closed the budget year of 2010, the City realized $178,553 in revenue and expended $147,012 for the 2010 Whidbey Island Marathon. Subsequently, we netted a “profit” of $31,541 for our effort. These net proceeds will now be rolled over into this year’s event and into the City’s Wellness Program to further promote our wellness programs. We fully expect similar financial results for the 2011 Whidbey Island Marathon. In Closing….. The City of Oak Harbor’s experience and success with the Whidbey Island Marathon is a testament on how taking a calculated risk to improve and energize your community is worth the venture. In this day and age of declining public resources, other cities in the State of Washington can and should also look for any local opportunity that might arise where they too can tap into the “can do” attitude of their employees and, most of all, their citizens. Association of Washington Cities Municipal Excellence Awards Category: Hometown Spirit Project: Whidbey Island Marathon by the City of Oak Harbor City: Oak Harbor Page 5 of 5 You should not underestimate the entrepreneurial spirit that can materialize if a new public program revolves around a celebration of communities’ strengths and engages its citizens in a challenge to come and be a part of the success. The human spirit is unlimited and when you can channel it towards your own hometown, you can bring about greatness in any community. Exhibit A
Exhibit A
THIS IS MORE
THAN A RACE.
Exhibit B
[consider it an adrenaline rush unlike any other]
The USATF certified/chip timed
course takes runners through rolling
country backroads & along breathtaking
waterfront coastline. A Boston Qualifier.
OVER $5,000
FOR TOP FINISHERS!
Medal awards given to all finishers.
EVENT UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP.
NEW COURSE! BETTER THAN EVER!
FITNESS EXPO FREE & OPEN TO ALL!
Runners Expo: April 10, 2010
5K Fun Run: April 10, 2010
Marathon & Half-Marathon: April 11, 2010
whidbey island
MARATHON & HALF MARATHON
PRESENTED
BY:
TITLE
SPONSOR:
WWW.WHIDBEYISLANDMARATHON.COM
Exhibit C
Exhibit C
Exhibit D
Exhibit D