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    Volunteers help MCM run smoothly

    Volunteers help MCM run smoothly

    Photo By Rachel Larue | Marines man a water station during the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 27, 2013. Thousands...... read more read more

    JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, UNITED STATES

    10.22.2014

    Story by Guv Callahan 

    Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall

    JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Katie Powers, a nurse at Manatee Memorial Hospital in Bradenton, Florida, originally volunteered to work the Marine Corps Marathon as a way to honor her two sons in the Corps. She’s making her way up to Arlington this weekend for her sixth marathon because she says the mood is infectious.

    “I just had so much fun that I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do this again,’” she said of her first marathon.

    Powers is one of thousands of volunteers, both civilian and Marine, who help to ensure that the Marine Corps Marathon, the ninth-largest in the world, goes off without a hitch.

    About 2,300 Marines volunteer to help throughout the marathon weekend, said Tami Faram, MCM public relations coordinator. They handle everything from security and course marshaling to water stations and post-race hospitality tents.

    Another 2,000 civilians also provide support, she said.

    “We couldn’t do it without the Marines, but the Marines couldn’t do it without the civilian volunteers, so it’s really great teamwork,” Faram said.

    Powers said her first time volunteering at the marathon got her so hooked that she started participating at other marathons, including the Boston Marathon. Powers was volunteering during the Boston Marathon bombing April 15, 2013, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

    As a nurse in Florida, Powers said she deals mainly in infant care. But the MCM gave her a new field in which to educate herself. Since volunteering for the MCM, she has volunteered as a nurse at 16 marathons.

    “I loved the challenge of learning how to take care of athletes,” she told the Pentagram.

    Dr. Rob Fawcett will volunteer at his 15th and final MCM before his retirement from medicine toward the end of this year.

    Fawcett, associate program director of the Family Medicine Residency at York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania, originally started volunteering with his residents as a unique teaching opportunity. It has since become a tradition that his successor intends to carry on, he said during an interview with the Pentagram.

    “It’s always a stimulating activity,” he said.

    With over 30,000 runners, there are ample opportunities to help people, he said. Fawcett also said he would never forget some of the incredible stories he’d heard from runners, including a Gold Star mother who was running the marathon for her son, a Marine who died in combat.

    The marathon’s sprawling volunteer corps will also be participating in a new Adopt-A-Mile pilot program this year, Faram said, in an effort to clean up litter and reduce the marathon’s footprint.

    The program will launch this year between miles five and eight of the course, one of the heaviest areas for trash and discarded clothing.

    All of the clothing runners discard will be collected and donated to shelters in Virginia and D.C., Faram said.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 10.22.2014
    Date Posted: 10.22.2014 17:02
    Story ID: 145823
    Location: JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US
    Hometown: BRADENTON, FL, US

    Web Views: 29
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN