Nothing embodies the power and joy of connecting our community for good like the Human Race Giving Campaign!
Each February it begins with the kick-off of a small group of determined and hopeful dreamers who come together across business, schools, faith, neighborhoods, service clubs and nonprofits to unveil a new look and theme for artwork, posters, and t-shirts.
The steady gathering of momentum continues as volunteers, companies, fundraisers and donors annually work their magic to tap into the incredible generosity of our community. It culminates with the joy of standing together in the early morning, over coffee and breakfast, running, walking, rolling and dancing along the coast for the good of our beloved community–lingering after lunch to visit a booth, pet a puppy or listen to great music.
There is nothing quite like looking across that sea of happy faces of all ages, from all walks of life, promoting so many great causes and adorned in their Human Race t-shirt.
As this is often the week when we annually come together to begin preparing for the Human Race Campaign, we have important news to share.
After a careful reflection by our team and board, we have determined that any Human Race we might put together this year would not be worthy of the name, the incredible history and the place that this event holds in the hearts and minds of the thousands of volunteers, fundraisers and donors who participate year after year.
One year into the pandemic, there is a weariness with virtual events, and we cannot ignore that there is a critical need to shift sponsor investment towards immediate community needs. We are letting you know that we will not hold a Human Race in 2021 – we are taking a break for a year until we can all gather together again in 2022.
We see this as a simple one year pause while we focus on restoring the health of our community.
In the last year, everyone has been stretched and challenged in new ways. Here at the Volunteer Center, we’ve done our best to sustain our volunteers, partners and community through pandemic, fires and the growing needs resulting from those twin disasters.
Right now, as our top priorities we are focused on connecting people to mass campaigns for access to food, combating social isolation, and mobilizing volunteers to help people get vaccines. We do this in the hope that we will soon be able to walk, dance and sing together in the sun again, all in support of our different causes, but joined together by our love of community and a really cool t-shirt.
Day by day we are getting there and we want to continue to rally our community to care for fellow neighbors by maintaining physical distance while finding safe ways to stay connected.
Until we can walk for change together again, we will hold that torch high, seek out our inner super hero, and continue to make magic in other ways!– Anyone else have favorite Human Race lingo? What was your favorite annual theme?
There are so many ways we can continue to raise awareness, funds, or people power to collectively support and sustain our incredible community this year and we look forward to partnering with you on this.
Check out our events page for the latest ways you can take action.
