By Rich Lemerise

Volunteers have long been a big part of the Central Mass Striders. It never ceases to amaze me how when asked , CMS members come in droves. However the notification is never as easy as it seems. I have tried the web, but being a novice on the computer, it seems to take more time than I can find, so I always end up calling the same people over and over (the ones I can talk into doing the things I need done) , to do a majority of the work the club has to perform.  Many times at races members come up to me to offer their help , but I never have time to find the names and numbers when I need them. I never have the schedule when the members are there to offer. I remember the first race I ran , everyone lined up , the race director did his speech , turned the  microphone over to Don Drewniak who proceeded to tell all CMS members how important it  was to volunteer at races, (or the club would end) . So when I joined CMS I checked off the boxes on the application to volunteer. No one ever contacted me, so the next year same thing, checked volunteer, again no contact . Finally I said, "forget it, if they don't want my help, to heck with them" (or words to that affect ).  It wasn't until I found out that the volunteer information on the  application was sitting in a file somewhere, because we have no one to keep track of all these folks, that I realized we needed someone to take charge of this. The solution: The board of directors has voted to appoint a member as Volunteer Coordinator. This member is David King. David  will try to sort through all the applications and come up with some kind of a list of what people want to do. We would like to put together different groups of volunteers , maybe some in the Fitchburg-Leominster area, some in South Worcester and East Worcester.   If you can help , contact David   at (978) 772-7430 or David King.  Some of the things we need help on are: Race directors for the 5-K series at Devens and Worcester State. Stu's 30K, there are many important behind the scenes jobs at this race, Food coordinator, Water station crew chief, (this is a big job), Set up before, Break down at the end . This is the biggest Race CMS will put on this year, also for the General Treasury of the club.  Race Director for the Wachusett Mt. Race May  Ric Buxton Memorial 5 Members Only 5K, June  Data entry of results. CMS times & Scores many races per year.  Track Central Mass High Schoolers as they go through College with College Kiddies Clips Generate results from races with CMS runners

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