The event is organized around the local situation, in 2011, most of the runs ran on Sunday, the 11th of September, one event ran on 17 September, and one on the same day as the New York City event, the 25th of September.
In spite of floods and a hurricane on the East Coast, there were 30 events across the nation, from Fort Lauderdale to Pearl Harbor.
We totaled over 12,000 registrations, three had over 1,000 on the first year of the event. If you add the nearly 30,000 in NYC, 42,000 followed a hero’s footsteps in 2011.
It all depended on how big and extensive the local race directors wanted to make it, we had a major corporate sponsor step up with nearly $20,000 and some runs happened with no local sponsors. Of course the purpose of this event is to recognize the sacrifice of those who serve our community and our nation, but also to provide funds to charitable organizations so they can do their good works.
The “Big Three” in 2011, were Fort Lauderdale, FL (3,000), Mobile, AL (2,011) and Pearl Harbor, HI (1,100).
Through Active Network Registration, the Foundation received almost $300,000 in registration fees and $10,000 in straight donations during the on-line registration process. We are now receiving funds that are left over from the local accounts before final division of the funds to the local charities.