The Dinosaur Half Marathon is looking forward to growing up and becoming a full marathon.
Organizers of the annual event presented the Badlands Community Facility with $20,000, its largest contribution in its four year history, making its all time total contribution $53,000.
Mayor Terry Yemen is grateful for the support and appreciates that the Community Futures Badlands Dino Half has continued to support the Badlands Community Facility.
“There is monetary support for this but there is more to it. There are over 400 people attending and they are not all from Drumheller. They are taking their stories home and sharing them,” said Mayor Terry Yemen.
Over those four years, Community Futures has been the main sponsor of the event and plans on continuing support in the future.
“But through their sponsorship and initiation this would have never taken place. In these four years, the community has thrived with health and fellowship. For the last two years, this has been the single largest sporting event in Drumheller,” said Colin Kloot of the Dino Half organizing committee.
“We are making this a flagship event in Alberta and we hope to look back in 20 years time and (Community Futures) will still be a proud sponsor of this event.”
Wayne Hove, general manager of Community Futures, says the event fits in its mandate.
“This event covers all three aspects of economic development. There is a physical component, a social component and economic component, and these factors play a large reason for its prominence in our plans. It is so professionally well done every year that it is very easy to keep seeing the perpetuation of it,” said Hove.
Next year the event will have both the full and half marathon, as well as the 5k and 10k races.
“Next year we are adding a full marathon into the fold and we are hoping to make this a premiere event in the province,” said Kloot, saying this has always been a goal for him.
“My initial vision was for a marathon, and then we realized from a logistic point of view that we should start small and grow from there.”
He adds he believes there is support out there for the event to grow, and the best way is through word of mouth. So far, with the positive feedback, they have heard about the new routes and the unique landscape in Drumheller, the event has a good chance to grow. He projects there could be upwards of 1,000 participants in the next two years.
(l-r) Jens Madsen and Colin Kloot of the Dino Half present Mayor Terry Yemen with a donation of $20,000 to the Badlands Community Facility, with Wayne Hove of Community Futures, the naming sponsor of the event.
