Boston College students ran laps around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Teams of up to nine students ran nine laps around the Res to raise awareness and fundraise for BC’s Campus School in the second annual Campus School Relay Res Run. The event raised $1,865 this year, with 109 runners.
The Campus School educates students ages 3 to 21 with disabilities through personalized special education. Currently, 42 students from 31 towns are enrolled in the school. Its main source of revenue is from the towns that enroll students in the school, so raising awareness and fundraising events contribute greatly.
According to Kristen Morin, marketing and outreach coordinator for the Campus School and BC ’86, before the Boston Marathon bombing, about 300 Campus School Volunteers would run the Boston Marathon as “bandits,” or unregistered runners, and would raise about $75,000 per year for the Campus School.
Since the Boston Bombings in 2013, however, bandits were no longer allowed to run in the Boston Marathon due to heightened security measures, and the Campus School could no longer received the donations that were made through bandit runners.
“[The Reservoir Relay] only ever came to be because we were no longer raising a significant amount of money from running as bandits in the Boston Marathon,” said Gina Iozzo, co-president of the Campus School Volunteers and MCAS ’17.
According to Iozzo, the Campus School Volunteers have also been working to expand their golf tournament, which brought in over $60,000 last year. They have also added a spikeball tournament in October which brings in about $1,000, and have sponsored a team to run in the Newton Chilly Half Marathon, which raised $26,000 last year. The relay event is mainly an event to spread awareness for the Campus School.
Nine laps around the Reservoir is about a half-marathon, or 13.1 miles. According to Iozzo, the Marathon Committee of the Campus School Volunteers decided to host the relay-style event to include anyone who wanted to run to support the Campus School. With a team of a maximum of nine people, students could simply run one lap around the Reservoir to compete in the relay with their friends.
Last year, the first year of the Res Run, 115 BC students came out to run around the Reservoir, raising about $1,500. Six families with students enrolled in the Campus School were present to cheer runners on as they completed the relay.
“Everyone was in a great mood, and obviously the weather was great, it was overall a happy and upbeat sort of day,” Iozzo said. “Everyone was cheering on all the runners, even people they didn’t know.”
Featured Image by Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor
