by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
Senior Master Sgt. Gerald Martin, a member of the Maine Air National Guard, won’t be running in the annual Maineiacs Charities Half Marathon and 5K Race on Sunday, Sept. 28, which begins at 8 a.m. on the Perry Road, next door to Gold’s Gym. He will be busy coordinating the 70 or more volunteers it takes to make the race possible. The volunteers will man registration tables, racecourse turn points and water stations, and serve as road guards.
Martin also serves at the chairman of the Maineiacs Charities board of directors.
“We did the race for several years, then it got dropped because of deployments [to Iraq and Afghanistan], but now we are in our fourth year [of the race],” Martin said.
Last year the race drew 350 runners, he said.
“It’s a USA Track and Field sanctioned event — it’s a certified course — so runners can use our course to qualify [to run] in a full Marathon in the future,” Martin said.
Proceeds from the race benefit Maineiac Charities, an organization that supports both air and army guardsmen, the community and other causes within Maine. “We do everything from helping with heating and electricity bills, to providing gas cards to those going to Boston for treatment for illness,” Martin said. “For a small charity, we do a lot.”
One of the Maineiacs’ projects is Maineiac for Day, offered to the families of children receiving treatment for cancer at the Lafayette Center in Brewer. With parental approval, children as young as 5 and as old as 15 spend four to five hours at the Air National Guard facility in Bangor. The go on a tour, see the equipment and have lunch with guardsmen in the dining hall.
“I love when the kids come to visit,” Martin said. “I want to keep them all, but my wife won’t let me. We give them little flight jackets and a bag of stuff to take home — a T-shirt, a marble game made in the base fabrication shop. The tours are personalized to the child’s interest so if they are interested in medical, police or flying, they spend time in those areas.”
The children are treated as part of the Maine National Guard family and are invited to the annual Guard Family Day. “The got to interact with all the Guard kids and get to be just kids,” he said.
Registration fee is $25 for the 5K race, $55 for the half Marathon.
The race goes down Perry Road, to Macaw Road, to Route 202, to Emerson Mill Road, to Papermill Road, to Pine Landfill where the turnaround is located, then runners backtrack to the starting point on Perry Road.
Race registration begins at 6 p.m. the day of the race, or runners may register in advance and find more information at usrunreg.com.