The Thanksgiving Day event runs through downtown, and will aid the Rescue Mission.
Roanoke Times, November 2006
By Amanda Codispoti
So when Kevin Spencer runs in Thursday's 5K Drumstick Dash dressed as a turkey, he isn't expecting to finish in record time.
Spencer has been visiting stores and churches around the valley sporting the costume, complete with a 7-foot-wide tail made of old ties, to raise awareness of the Rescue Mission and the dash.
It's the first year the Rescue Mission has held the dash, which will raise money for the shelter.
Almost 800 people have signed up for the walk/run, but Lee Clark, the Rescue Mission's director of development and administration, said he expects to have about 1,000 participants registered before the race begins.
Because of the positive response, Clark said the Rescue Mission wants to make the dash an annual event.
"I've got a lot of people telling me they want to make this a family tradition," he said.
The Rescue Mission hopes the race and donations from corporate sponsors will raise about $100,000, which will go toward the shelter's $2.9 million budget.
The money raised Thursday will help the Rescue Mission provide food and shelter to people in need in 2007. The shelter serves more than 900 meals a day, and an average of 184 men, women and children receive shelter each night.
The Rescue Mission is serving a Thanksgiving meal at 1 p.m. Thursday, and about 100 people have volunteered to help serve food, Clark said.
The walk/run begins and ends at the Rescue Mission on Fourth Street Southeast, and the route runs through downtown Roanoke, where several roads will be closed for the event.
The route is marked with neon green turkey feet that appeared on the pavement over the weekend. (edited) That's three miles of turkey feet.
For Spencer, a Roanoke teacher and veteran of several marathons, the event combines two important parts of his life: running and helping others as a servant of God.
"You know that on Thanksgiving evening you're going to go to that pumpkin pie twice," he said. "So when your friends look at you and say, 'Is that your second piece of pie?' you can tell them, 'Look, I ran three miles and I gave to the homeless.' "
Staff writer Matt Chittum contributed to this report.