It's time to lace up your running shoes, your walking shoes, or your volunteer shoes and mark your calendars for the 30th Annual Gary Tillman Memorial Clocktower 5K Road Race and 2 Mile Health Walk.  This year will mark the 10th year of Exchange Club involvement and benefiting our own Family Resource Center.  The race will be held on Saturday, August 15th, at 8:00am.  We need participants, sponsors, and volunteers.  This race cannot happen without your help.  Volunteer sheets will start appearing at meetings starting next week.  Registration forms and sponsorship information are available by clicking on the appropriate links. 

• Volunteer Coordinator - Work with the race director to recruit and assign some 70 volunteers, including Exchangites, FRC board and staff, and community volunteers.  Communicate with volunteers prior to race day to ensure they know their job, where they are to be, and what time they are to arrive on race day.  Check in volunteers on race day, reassigning to open spots if necessary.  Ensure that tee-shirts and lanyards are distributed, and that lanyards are returned.  Requires strong organizational skills and the ability to think quickly under pressure.  Jason has done this beautifully for several years, but will be shadowing me this year.

• Refreshments Coordinator - Secure food, beverages, cups, and ice for post-race refreshments, and work with Sponsor Liaison for refreshment area layout on race day.  Ensure that water is available for water stop and that volunteers are in place to carry tables and water to the water stop.  The water stop volunteers are "old pros" at this.  We just need to be sure they have what they need to take to the water stop. Ensure a smooth flow from the Finish Line to the refreshment area and then out into the park.  We need water for the runners when they finish but don't want them to congregate at the Finish Line.  In the past we have had bananas and oranges, sometimes bagels, water, and energy and/or recovery drinks.  I would like to expand this and make it more organized.  Depending on sponsors, they may also have food or drinks at their tents.  This needs to be coordinated.

• Registration Liaison - Ensures that registration deadlines are met on race day (no runners may register after 7:30am).  Ensures that all entries are received by the Finish Line company for input, and then returned to Kathy Phillips for input into the race email database.  Assists the Finish Line company in tracking down problem entries prior to race and during results compilation.

    Next year there will be other roles that can be filled by someone other than the race director, but if we can get volunteers in these for this year, it would be tremendous!  Please contact Gail Johnson at 706-346-9348 or gailj1@bellsouth.net if you are interested, or know someone who would be a good fit.

    I am not sure I felt this way all during the year ... but ... where did this last year go?  It seems like I have just started my term as President of the Club and now it is time to be "put out to pasture".  It has been fast but it has been extremely productive.  We began a busy July passing out flags and rallying with the Family Resource Center gang for a big outing and school supply give away.  We never slowed down after then.  

    The Club and its members have accomplished a lot this year in many different venues.  There were many highlights which you have participated in or read about as the weeks rolled on.  We did a lot of new things this year, some minor but many were very major in both planning and execution.  Our FRC is involved with a record number of families and we have helped them in many ways. 

     Our members have been very involved with each of their fund raisers which have raised a record amount of funds.  We have had a number of community involvement opportunities which we were glad to support and participate in.  Our Club had an unbelievable year with our main fund raising event - The Coosa Valley Fair.  Under the guidance of Kirk Milam the Fair raised a substantial amount of money which we were able to funnel to the community in various forms.  Of course, our main charity is the FRC and we have contributed over $30,000 to them through direct donations, fund raising sponsorships, and in-kind donations directly from the Club.  In addition the $4,000 we donate to the United Way helps bring back another almost $30,000 to the Center.  We have helped the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Library, Red Cross and many others along the way.

    Many events we do from year to year.  We strive to make them better and provide service to our community at the same time.  Events like the Senior Santa gifts, military postcards, miniature flag give away, blue cup donations, youth programs, scholarships and so many more.  This year we also added a few like the children safety program downtown for Trick-or-Treat.  We did, however, add a couple very major events which took months of planning and a concentrated amount of funds and manpower to pull off with help from a number of special friends and organizations. The first was the raising of the flag pole and posting of the Star Spangled Banner replica flag on Jackson Hill.  The second was the gathering of many community organizations to rally behind a single Memorial Day event to honor our fallen heroes that gave their all for our great land.

    All of the efforts have be greatly appreciated by our community and our peers.  There is daily talk about the presence of the wonderful flag which can be seen from almost anywhere in Rome.  It is a fitting tribute which our Club has instigated and successfully completed for our citizenship and visitors.  Our efforts have not gone unnoticed in any way.  Nothing shows more evidence of this than our trip to the Georgia State Convention.  We brought home every single award we submitted except for one.  Not too shabby gang! 

    I leave you now with this last thought.  We could not have done it without each and every one of our members.  I offer a very heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you for helping me this year.  You made my job much easier and it has been a pleasure to serve you ....

     May God continue to bless you and your families.

Bryan