Father’s Day 5K Goes ‘Individual’
After 10 years as an in-person road race and one year of no race at all, the 2021 Father’s Day 5K — a fundraiser for local community health centers — will be done individually rather than in a group this year. People of all ages and abilities are invited to walk or run, use their wheelchair or treadmill to complete a 5K course of their choosing, anytime on Father’s Day weekend.
All event proceeds support access to quality health care and support services at Goodwin Community Health, Families First Health & Support Center, and Lilac City Pediatrics. Participation fee is $25 for adults and $5 for ages 12 and under.
Race signup is at https://runsignup.com/FathersDay5kNH, along with information about how all aspects of the race will be handled virtually, from printing bibs, to timing, to reporting results to taking photos.
“Race participants will need to be more self-sufficient this year,” says Chief Development Officer Joann Neumann, noting that the decision not to hold the race in person needed to be made many months ago. “The advantage is that participants get the flexibility to make the race their own, doing it whenever and wherever they like. And everyone wins their own race.”
All participants will be entered into a drawing to win prizes such as Margarita’s gift cards.
Neumann notes that despite the upheaval of the past two years, race sponsorship has remained strong. All the sponsors who signed on in 2020 came through even though there was no race. “This year, we are grateful to our lead sponsors, Novocure and Digital Prospectors,” she says, “as well as Eastern Bank; Newburyport Bank Charitable Foundation; Clark Insurance; CGI Employee Benefits Group; Garrison Family Dental; Granite Bay Wealth Management; Kennebunk Savings; NH Healthy Families; Peter G. Kasnet Inc.; United Way of the Greater Seacoast; Well Sense Health Plan; Wentworth-Douglass Hospital; Allergy Associates of New Hampshire; Bangor Savings Bank; D.F. Richard Energy; Dodge’s Farm & Garden; Law Offices of Stephen C. Brown & Associates; and Tobey & Merrill Insurance.”
For those who don’t wish to race but want to support the health centers, donations can be made online at GetCommunityHealth.org/donate.
Goodwin Community Health and Families First Health & Support Center are community health and family resource centers serving the greater Seacoast region of New Hampshire and Southern Maine. They provide general medical care for people of all ages, dental care, prenatal care, counseling, substance misuse treatment, parenting classes, family programs, home visiting and family programs, and mobile health care for the homeless. Lilac City Pediatrics provides pediatric and behavioral health care to children and adolescents. The three serve almost 20,000 local adults and children, many of them uninsured or lacking access to affordable, quality health care. They operate centers in Somersworth, Portsmouth, and Rochester, as well as mobile health clinics in multiple Seacoast locations. For more information, visit GetCommunityHealth.org.
