Volunteers

Dear AOR Volunteers and Friends,

WOW! The 2010 American Odyssey Relay was a HUGE success thanks to the efforts of all of you. There were over 300 volunteers along the course to assist our runners, drivers, community efforts, businesses and everyone else. The runners could not believe the huge crew of dedicated volunteers and how much fun they had at each transition. Okay, maybe those runners who got lost had a little less fun than others at those moments but at least there were not many of those and they were all eventually FOUND! Hooray for the volunteers!

Click here for Volunteer Testimonials from the 2010 AOR Race

Again this year, when I finally ended up at the Finish Line party in DC late Saturday afternoon, the one comment I heard most was "The volunteers were GREAT!" So many of you did so many great things - it is just too much to mention here but of course I will try. In order to give all of you a sense of some of the other parts of the race, I will give you a few examples of what we are so lucky to have:

• Volunteering for the race when you are not affiliated with a runner or a team or AOR people - JUST for FUN!
• Arriving earlier than asked just to make sure things are taken care of
• Being a Volunteer Captain for one area or even SIX!
• Completely taking over a Transition Area with your friends and/or family
• Providing numerous volunteers at numerous locations just to be nice
• Putting out route signs
• Picking up route signs
• Driving from REALLY FAR AWAY to volunteer at this crazy race
• Helping out at Team Check-in, Start, Finish
• Volunteering at several locations throughout the race
• Costumes that sure do look like Civil War to me
• Making encouraging signs for runners
• Cheering on those runners
• Photographing those runners
• Making our 35 Military teams feel special
• Making our charity teams feel special
• Making all the other teams feel special
• 80's Rock Stars - scary!
• Involving the entire Fire Dept in the community
• Involving the entire community
• Providing funnel cakes after running
• Putting all sorts of stuff out for runners
• Bringing your own canopies, tents and lights to enhance a Transition Area
• Cheering on our amazing Solo Runner - Dane
• Waiting in the dark, cold night for that last team.....
• Getting your parents, spouse, kids, cousins, neighbors to help out
• Getting the entire track team to help out
• Letting us use your school, street, farm, parking lot, business for a Transition Area
• Having a Bonfire!
• Wearing your jammies and robe to volunteer - less to do when you get homeJ
• Making Antietam even more special - Burnside Bridge is so cool!
• Making the Bavarian Inn a HUGE SUCCESS as Transition #24!
• Pancakes and Sausages!
• Hanging out in at dawn along the C&O Canal, waiting for that first team.....
• Camping out to wait for that first team.....
• Being the Transition Train Conductor - Choo Choo!
• Making runners Walk The Plank - one among many pirate activities
• Making Dickerson a FUN Transition #30!
• Helping runners get off and back on the C&O Canal
• Great Falls sighting of Jonas Bros and/or Twilight celebrity types
• That lllooooooooooonnnnggggg walk down to the canal at Wilson Lane
• Georgetown craziness and traffic - but what big city fun!
• FINISH LINE FESTIVAL - a great time for everyone!

There were so many examples of so many things done that went above and beyond. This race could never be successful without your help. Everyone at AOR and certainly all of our runners and teams appreciate all that you do to make this happen. My hope is that you will join us in 2011. I promise many improvements based upon what we learn from our experiences this year.

Please send along any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc. We rely on you as our eyes and ears along the course and really do want to hear what you have to say! If you have any photos you would allow us to post on the website, please send them along as well.

We will be announcing the winners of our different volunteer contests later this week, once the counting of finish line ballots and the surveys from runners are complete. Check our website for updates, category winners and hopefully lots of photos! It's fun to see what happened all thru the race.

One last note - many of you met Freddy. He became my mascot throughout the race but as I did, missed seeing some volunteers due to timing. He should be very visible in lots of photos, slideshows and videos as I do believe he was the ONLY PINK FLAMINGO traversing the AOR course. He was very happy but tired at the end of the relay and really loves his new tattoo, Mardi Gras beads and the stickers. His favorite part of the 40 hours awake was meeting all of you. Look for him next year as he will be in hibernation until then!

Hope to hear from you soon,

Kelly Cameron
American Odyssey Relay
Director - Logistics and Volunteers