Walkathon Maven

found this on the non profit tech for good blog!

The New Year is hours away, and I’m populating my calendar with all kinds of family and fun events for 2014.  I found this gem on the Non Profit Tech for Good blog and thought I would share.  I have never heard of most of these. Some are worth an eyebrow-raise and others I may read more about to see if they have a walkathon or what color their awareness ribbon may be. I like that they even have their twitter hashtags ready!

As you know, some causes have adopted a whole month. Let’s see if any of these below can gain any traction to do so – although I am unsure if there are any un-adopted months left on the calendar.  International Day for Street Children happens to fall on my birthday, but I doubt I will be celebrating it – unless they are serving my favorite orange vodka, limes and lotsa ice 😉

January

20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service — #MLKDay

February

2: World Wetlands Day — #WorldWetlandsDay

4: World Cancer Day — #WorldCancerDay

5: Digital Learning Day — #DLDay

14: V-Day — #VDay or #1BillionRising

20: World Day of Social Justice — #SocialJusticeDay

25: World Spay Day — #WorldSpayDay

27: World NGO Day — #WorldNGODay

28: Rare Disease Day — #RareDiseaseDay

March

8: International Women’s Day — #IntWomensDay or #IWD

22: World Water Day — #WorldWaterDay or #WWD

24: World Tuberculosis Day — #WorldTBDay

April

2: World Autism Awareness Day — #WorldAustismDay

12: International Day for Street Children — #StreetChildrenDay

22: Earth Day — #EarthDay

25: World Malaria Day — #WorldMalariaDay

May

1: International Workers’ Day — #IntWorkersDay, #MayDay or #LaborDay

10: World Fair Trade Day — #WorldFairTradeDay

16: National Bike to Work Day — #BikeToWorkDay

18: International Museum Day — #IntMuseumDay or #MuseumDay

23: World Turtle Day — #WorldTurtleDay

June

8: World Oceans Day — #WorldOceansDay

14: World Blood Donor Day — #WorldBloodDonorDay

20: World Refugee Day — #WorldRefugeeDay or #RefugeeDay

July

11: WorldPopulationDay — #WorldPopulationDay

18: Nelson Mandela International Day — #MandelaDay

29: Global Tiger Day — #GlobalTigerDay or #TigerDay

August

9: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples — #IndigenousDay

12: International Youth Day — #IntYouthDay or #YouthDay

12: World Elephant Day — #WorldElephantDay

19: World Humanitarian Day — #WorldHumanitarianDay

September

8: International Literacy Day — #IntLiteracyDay or #LiteracyDay

21: International Day of Peace — #IntDayOfPeace or #PeaceDay

22: World Rhino Day — #WorldRhinoDay

28: World Rivers Day — #WorldRiversDay or #RiversDay

October

4: World Animal Day — #WorldAnimalDay

5: World Teachers Day — #WorldTeachersDay

10: World Mental Health Day — #WorldMentalHealthDay

11: International Day of the Girl — #IntDayOfTheGirl or #DayOfTheGirl

11: National Coming Out Day — #NationalComingOutDay or #NCOD

12: World Arthritis Day — #WorldArthritisDay

November:

14: World Diabetes Day — #WorldDiabetesDay

20: Universal Children’s Day — #ChildrensDay

December:

1: World AIDS Day — #WorldAIDSDay

2: Giving Tuesday — #GivingTuesday

3: International Day of People with Disabilities — #IDPWD

10: Human Rights Day — #HumanRightsDay

11: International Mountain Day — #IntMountainDay or #MountainDay

I hope you and your families have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

What happens when your walkathon becomes so popular that it requires that the streets along your route to be closed for several MORE hours – limiting access to the residents that live there?   What happens if a neighborhood association along your route gets together and denies your event access?

This article in the Boston Business Journal shares that many popular road races in New England have been cancelled. Not because of logistical or monetary issues – but because the neighbors along the event route do not want the added disruption.    Many half, and full marathons can shut down street access anywhere from 3 to 12 hours.

I live near the Boston Marathon route, and know that there is NO WAY that I will be getting across Rt. 135 during the hours of 10am to 4pm on the third Monday every April. The po-po has it shut down and there are barricades in many places.  Depending on the side of the street they are located, many businesses along the marathon route know that they will either have a lucrative Monday or some simply do not bother and stay closed for the day.

Most walkathons are either 5K or 5 miles, and only require a 90 minute to 4 hour shutdown of some streets – if necessary.  Ideally, your event is making all right turns, which will minimize the traffic and residential disruption. If your walk route needs to be in a residential area, then you are hopefully placing flyers in the mailboxes of those affected to let them know the date/time and invite them to participate.

Perhaps your walk is on private property, or a state/city park and you only need to make nice-nice with the pavement or wildlife!

If you have more than 7,500 walkers, you will probably have a rolling start. Rolling starts allow participants to begin their walk anytime within a designated window. Rolling starts will reduce the large walking blob that spills into streets and require a shutdown.

I have not even touched upon the participant parking!  When you have more walkers, you will need more places for the participants and volunteers to park their cars during the event.  Will you bus them in?  That’s an expense.  Additional vehicles on residential streets will add to the irritation to the neighbors that live there.

How about this option?

Bottom line – if your route is in a residential area, think about the implications and inconvenience to the neighbors and try to keep your disruption to a minimum.  If you become too much of a nuisance, they may organize to shut you down.

‘Tis the season for many things inside and outside.  When we take the family to outside holiday events, one the of the first questions that my Princess daughter asks is “will there be bathrooms outside?”  I smile to myself that she is starting to think like me, and I also wonder that myself.

I came upon an article posted on the United Services website about potty-planning for outside events this winter.  United is a large potty company and they have a blog!  I wish they had a fun name like many other potty companies – but since they offer other services maybe they should keep it simple and boring.  Pfftttht.

From their site:

One of the most often overlooked aspects of event planning is assessing your portable sanitation needs well in advance of your event.   Can I get an AMEN?!

Here are some fun “who knew?!!” items from the article:

They use a special anti-freeze blend to keep the ‘solution’ from freezing in the potty.

They have a potty calculator to help you determine how many you need for your event. (I like that they ask if alcohol will be served as part of the calculation!)

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are preferred over sinks so the water will not freeze.

See more at:  http://unitedsiteservices.com/blog/winter-event-planning-portable-toilet-rentals