1997 Groton Road Race
Sunday April 27, 1997
District Public School 5K Participation

Entry forms are now available

This proposal is written for athletic directors of local public school systems. The Groton Road Race has been an annual event in Groton since 1992. The race has evolved into a major community event attracting a wide variety of interest from Groton and surrounding communities.

The Groton-Dunstable School District has taken an active role in the event. Each year, the district provides the use of the district's facilities over the weekend of the race. In addition many of the students act as volunteers on race weekend and receive credit as part of their community service program. Many of the district's student athletes participate in the various races at all levels as they are encouraged by their teachers. Teachers encourage students to live healthy, active lives which correlate with the district's overall health and fitness goals.

Aside from bringing the race to your attention, I would like to talk about various systems and incentives for participation in the events

As a participant of the Groton Road Race, you could :

• Promote your school's name and presence. With so many districts being part of "school choice," you now have the opportunity to send student athletes to an event in which they ( the students) promote your school district, or serve as representative of your district.
• Meet your district's overall fitness goals by encouraging student participation.
• Encourage healthy lifestyles and fitness of students.
• Compete against neighboring school districts with incentives for involvement and success (e.g. point system to determine overall district winner with results published in local newspapers and on the Internet (, e.g., Lowell Sun, Public Spirit, World Wide Web)
• Competition between students of sponsoring districts with awards - trophies provided by the Squannacook River Runners to those student athletes who place high- race committee will devise a student and school scoring system
• Community service points for volunteer students, e.g., students who do not run, but help with the race set-up. They will receive community service points. Students will have numerous opportunities to earn these points; (pre-race set-up, work during the race, and post-race clean-up. Community service point structure will be applied to the amount of hours a student volunteers for the race.
• Announce the school with the highest percentage of participation
• Trophies for teams who compete , (top three) - boys and girls division.
• Tie in of physical education credit for participation - design an incentive credit system with those physical education teachers willing to promote and encourage their student's participation in the race. Physical education teachers will give their students extra-credit for running in the race

The towns of Groton, Ayer, Townsend, Littleton, Westford, Acton and Harvard and others are expected to participate.

Community Service points will attract the greatest number of students. Within my school, I will announce the race and have a sign up session. I will be in charge of monitoring the race volunteer workers. I will need to speak with principals from neighboring districts and decide on when to have sign up days and ask which representative from the district will monitor the program.

Athletic directors and physical education teachers will announce the race within their school and conduct a sign up session. All incentives will be attached to the application. It will only be possible for me to work with athletic directors, physical education teachers, and track coaches; hoping they will do some coordinating within their school system.

There are three major events at the road race (2K, 5K and 10K) however the school team and individual scoring system is focused at the 5K (3.1 miles) event scheduled for 11:50 am.

For more information or entry forms, contact Mike Fitzpatrick from Ayer High School on 772-1103 or email Fitzdoctor@aol.com or the race hotline on 448-8414.

Steps:

• Put one or more teachers and students in charge of promoting the school's involvement
• Form one or more teams within the school
• Have the students complete the registration forms
• Send them ( with checks ) to the Road Race PO, preferably in team bundles.
• Send a list of volunteers into the road race at least 2 weeks prior to race day with a list of names and phones of all volunteers. 4 hour minimum volunteers time.
• Schools who pre-register, with 3 or more athletes, will receive $2 off the $12 application fee. No "day of race" discounts.

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