ShawneeDispatch.com

Three hours before the opening South African rooster crow of the Run for Mercy, a handful of people were already running, back and forth, through Mill Valley High School.

Organizers were preparing for an event they knew would be even bigger than last year's, with 1,092 participants preregistered. Standing in the middle of it all Saturday morning was James Lawson, in his second year as race director, constantly responding to the questions and needs of his core organizing team.

"So you can see it's a bit of controlled chaos," he said.

The fifth annual Run for Mercy garnered the largest number of participants in the event's history, with 25 percent more runners and 20 percent more funds raised for Oceans of Mercy, the Shawnee-based organization dedicated to helping South African children affected by the AIDS virus. But as Lawson noted, the success of the event also is a testament to all who give their time to make it happen.

"At the end of the day, it's really not about one person; it's really that we have a strong core team," Lawson said. "They are the ones that have taken these disparate functions and run with it so it all comes together. I really have to give credit to these people who have given nights, weekends, time away from their family because they believe in the cause and they want to do a good run."

Ten volunteers make up the main organizing committee, heading up groups for parking, the course, corporate sponsorships, participant donations, registration, post-race cleanup and public relations. They coordinate another 100 community volunteers, most of whom contribute their time the day of the event.

In the predawn hours, volunteers gathered to set up tables and prepare food donated for the event, which includes cutting oranges and muffins for easy access.

"Which doesn't sound like a big deal until you look at the volume of food we have," Lawson said. "Then you realize how time-consuming that task is."

Volunteers also made sure to get registration set up and check that pre-registrations have been put into the system properly to ensure smooth day-of registration. Eric Johnson, race course chair, drove the course, putting out mile markers and making sure there was no debris or obstructions.

The volunteers had already spent countless hours coordinating the race. A year ago, they met to evaluate the fourth annual race and the improvements that could be made. They began coordinating with Mill Valley and the Shawnee Police Department to select this year's date.

In August, they began meeting monthly to organize and market the run.

"We focus on marketing, making sure that each month we get closer to the date there's more and more visibility given to the date so we can make sure our participant numbers are high and we can translate that into dollars for the cause," Lawson said.

In the cafeteria Saturday, Sherri Hultgren, public relations chair, explained the efforts to keep the race's message consistent in this year's publicity: Keep it focused on the children whose lives are made better thanks to Oceans of Mercy.

Hultgren was part of the organization's mid-March trip to South Africa, so she said the message is certainly at the forefront of her mind.

"I got back and went to eat my $20 lunch, and you can't help but think, 'I could feed 400 children with $20,'" she said. "Every dollar we raise is critical to helping those children."

At 6:32 a.m., Vicki Cannon, registration chair, went over the day-of registration process with volunteers. Lawson breezed through, but Cannon had it under control, so it was back to the cafeteria and then to the parking lot to once again check on the food. Lawson notes all that has been donated for the event: cookies, fruit, muffins, water and cases of sports drinks.

"People really just come out of nowhere to help out," he marveled.

All morning, he maintained this sort of route, running from the parking lot to the registration area to the cafeteria and back.

Over the radio, a voice called out Lawson's name.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Never mind; we found it," came the reply.

Lawson himself has participated in 11 marathons, and he said the spirit of community and of giving is evident throughout the Run for Mercy.

"This is unique in that it's very laid back," he said. "Even the hard-core runners aren't that worried about their time. It's a very cause-oriented event."

As the clock neared 7, Lawson realized his DJ was late. He coordinated with the Gracepoint Church band, which was setting up to play a few songs, to fill in as a backup.

"There's so many parts with everything happening at once, that you just have to roll with it," Lawson said of the unexpected problem.

But disaster was averted: the DJ finally showed just after 7 a.m.

At 7:15 a.m., the participants really began to flood in, and in no time, Mill Valley's campus was overtaken.

With the beginning of the run at 8 a.m., much of the volunteers' work is over, and results are tabulated: 1,213 participants in all, compared to 970 last year. Later, Lawson discovers the preliminary number for the amount of funds raised for Oceans of Mercy is $29,000, $5,000 more than last year's event.

"It's a little humbling," Lawson said of the realization that he led the team that organized the event. "It's really not just me; we have a ton of people that work really hard. And it's really satisfying to organize an event for a great cause that obviously a lot of people enjoy."

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