Volunteers Needed for Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race

Popular race set for Saturday, August 3

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine - Volunteers are needed for the fifth annual Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race to be held here Saturday, August 3.

Persons interested in volunteering should contact Maya Cohen, the volunteer director for this year's race, at (207) 838-8816 or stop by any Peoples Heritage Bank branch statewide for a volunteer application form. Copies of the volunteer form also may be printed from the race's web site, www.beach2beacon.org.

Completed forms should be mailed to: Peoples Beach to Beacon 10K, Attention: Maya Cohen, 21 Surf Road, Cape Elizabeth, Maine 04107.

The Peoples Beach to Beacon, founded by Joan Benoit Samuelson and Peoples Heritage Bank, has become one of the marquee events in the international road race circuit, attracting elite athletes from throughout the world to Maine. The event also needs more than 600 volunteers each year.

This year, volunteers are needed both before and during the race in a number of areas, Cohen said. Pre-race volunteers are needed in course set up, registration, assembling race kits and transporting race materials. On race day, persons are needed to help with the Young Peoples Run (a children's 1K event), the runners' food tent, water stations, course breakdown, start breakdown, bottle recovery and clean-up.

The field for this year's race has been expanded to 5,000 runners to mark the fifth anniversary. The scenic course is the same, beginning at Crescent Beach along Route 77 and ending 6.2 miles later at the Portland Head lighthouse at Fort Williams. The youth organization chosen by the bank as the 2002 race beneficiary is Opportunity Farm, a long-term, family-style facility in New Gloucester for at risk boys and girls. Opportunity Farm will receive a $30,000 cash donation from Peoples as well as fundraising and publicity valued at more than $40,000.

For additional info or entry forms, persons may call the toll-free hotline at (888) 480-6940, or log on to www.beach2beacon.org or www.peoplesheritage.com.

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