Photo credit: John Hafford

Millinocket Marathon Katahdin Community Stimulus

For the past five Decembers a brave and mighty contingent of runners and supporters have descended upon the Katahdin region to race in the Millinocket Marathon and Half. The spirit of the race continues to be one of giving back and boosting local businesses and organizations in the region. This year, the Millinocket Marathon and Half is cancelled due to COVID-19 as large gatherings for race events are not safe.

The spirit of the race lives on! The local businesses and restaurants that you know and love need your support more than ever during these tough times. The Katahdin Chamber of Commerce has launched Katahdin Community Stimulus, a local business stimulus to help our favorite businesses. Our Katahdin is partnering with the local Chamber to offer you an opportunity to provide support!

Here’s how it works - the Chamber hosts a gift card buying day, during which residents, visitors and/or Millinocket fans can purchase gift cards to local businesses in any amount. To double the impact, that amount is matched with funds from a sponsor. For example, $25 is given from the customer to the Chamber, and a $50 gift card is given to the customer to be used at the local business of their choice, with the additional $25 sponsored by generous supporters like yourself! The Chamber then transfers the total amount of the gift card to the local business upon purchase. It’s almost as good as being here and grabbing dinner at your favorite place or attending your favorite post-race dance party.

Our Katahdin is actively raising funds to sponsor the match for gift cards purchased. The first sale of gift cards to support local businesses happened this summer, and $1,500 of matching funds were spent in 52 minutes. In less than 1 hour, $3,000 were given to local businesses.

We want to be able to sell gift cards for as long as it took the fastest woman to run the Marathon. In 2017, Sarah Mulcahy, ran a course record in 2:56:05. To be able to sell gift cards to support businesses for that same amount of time, we need to raise $5,076 that will directly support local businesses.

Runners, supporters, and fans of the Katahdin region, you can help in 2 ways!

1. Give to the matching pool of funds by donating to Our Katahdin’s Millinocket Marathon Local Business Stimulus project. Your donation is tax deductible, funds raised double the impact and will be distributed to local businesses once gift cards are purchased.
   
   
2. Buy gift cards on Saturday December 5th, 2020 to your favorite restaurants and shops throughout the region. These could make great holiday gifts! More details about gift card buying day will be coming soon.

Support local businesses! Donate here!

*Footnotes

- The Millinocket Marathon and Half Artisan Craft Fair is not happening this year with the cancellation of the race. However, many artisans are selling their products online. For more information, visit their Artisan Craft Fair - Facebook.

- Our Katahdin supports the decision of the race organizers to cancel this year’s race. We want to echo Gary Allen’s words, and discourage people from coming and running anyway. Advice from Gary on the Millinocket Marathon and Half Running Group Facebook page “Please, please, please don’t go up and run anyway. We absolutely do not endorse anyone going to Millinocket to run. A couple of things, there will be no permits applied for or issued to use the Golden Road or Penobscot Territories so any use could forever end our marathon. We understand stubborn but putting this community at risk for mostly selfish reasons is unacceptable. Please don’t go run anyway. The best possible thing we can all do is to stand united to protect this town so that when we all return again together we’ll be appreciated and of course safe”.