Colleen's BA 5K Race/1 Mile Fun Run

Volunteer Activity #3 of 2014:  I woke up early this morning to work registration at the Colleen's BA 5K Race/1 Mile Fun Run.  It was an event close by and the girl that the run is named after went to my high school (except I graduated 10 years before she did).

Please join us for the first annual Colleen’s BA 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk to benefit the Colleen Mitchel Memorial Fund.  The Fund was established in memory of Colleen Mitchel, who was born with liver disease (biliary atresia or BA) in 1993, had a liver transplant at 7 months old, and died last year at 19 years old from complications due to liver disease, while awaiting another liver transplant. Proceeds from the event will support biliary atresia (BA) research at the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Liver Center in Baltimore, MD.

Anyway, I thought it was a good way to support the community.  Registration was quite busy for such a small race.  After that area died down, they put me on food duty, which was to put grapes, strawberries, and blueberries into little Dixie cups for the runners after they finished the race.

One interesting thing that happened to me was that one of the volunteers came up to me and asked my why I looked familiar.  "Did you work at HRSA?"  No, but I did work at the National Cancer Institute.  A light bulb went off in her head.  We worked together briefly back in 2008!  After she said her name, it clicked for me too.  Wow, small world.

I was only signed up to do registration, but I stuck around to see what other help was needed after the race was over.  People were congregating in the all purpose room and eating the snacks that were provided.  There were brief speeches from Colleen's mom, dad, and doctor.  Race winners were announced, as well as the raffle winners.  Even though I didn't know this family, it was cool to see that her friends and family and school communities wanted to come out and support her.

Post-Race Activities: After the race, I went to visit my parents and my aunt and then took a nice nap back at home. When I woke up, I decided to make a trip to Target and get some gas for the car. I saw on Twitter that some of the NYX butter glosses were on clearance at Target, but I didn't find that that was the case at my Target.  Oh well.  I did get some cereal though, so that the trip would be a complete bust.  I ate a crab cake at my parents' house (they took a trip to Annapolis this afternoon) and then took a walk with Julie to get some Fitbit steps in.  Afterwards I went to get some groceries and picked up a Redbox movie since I had a free rental code.  I ended up getting Thor: The Dark World.  Meh, it was alright.  I'm glad that I didn't spend $10 on it at the movie theater.