GILROY
– The last one to the finish line will reek at the annual Reek
Run, scheduled for Saturday at Gavilan College.
GILROY – The last one to the finish line will reek at the annual Reek Run, scheduled for Saturday at Gavilan College.
The race is a fund raiser, and the money will go toward hiring a consultant to assist the Theater Angels develop a performing arts center downtown.
The 10-kilometer race begins at 8 a.m. and the 5-kilometer run/walk will begin at 8:15 a.m. Both will travel around the Gavilan track, through campus and along Santa Teresa Boulevard.
Participants can register Saturday morning starting at 7 near the Gavilan College tennis courts. Fees are $25 with a shirt, $15 without. The T-shirt was designed by local artist, Angie Young, and depicts little garlic runners.
The Dispatch and several agencies and individuals have underwritten the event which costs between $1,500 and $2,000. Participants can continue collecting pledges and general donations until Aut. 7.
Up to 100 people participate each year and event organizer Bill Flodberg is expecting the same numbers Saturday. Medals and awards will be given to the top three runners in each race and age group.
“It started because the Gilroy Garlic Festival decided to eliminate a number of peripheral events held at different venues other than the festival. Also, the Theater Angels needed a fund raiser to help raise money for a performance arts center in Gilroy,” he said of the event now in its fifth year.
The city approved a two-lot land purchase on Monday that by 2010 will house part of the cultural art center at Seventh and Eigleberry streets. The cultural center is in a conceptual design phase only, but “footprint” plans call for a theater, garden, art gallery and 115 parking spaces among other details.
The Theater Angels assist individual artists and art groups that need special funding.
