The Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K run and 1-mile fun run/walk – presented by the Rotary Club of Moorestown – will kick off at the Community House on Saturday, June 1, at 8:30 a.m.
The traffic-free USATF- (USA Track & Field) certified course, now in its 40th year, is named for one of the founders of the race, Coffee, who passed away in the summer of 2006. Proceeds will benefit the activities of Moorestown Rotary charities and the Scott Coffee Education Endowment for scholarships.
Back in 1985, the Moorestown Rotary was looking for a new fundraiser, so the group started kicking around ideas, according to the race website. Ideas for a high-school basketball or wrestling tournament were floated, but Coffee came up with the run.
The first event saw a couple hundred people, and from there it continued to grow, with more than 1,000 runners from all over the Philadelphia region. Event sponsors include Wegmans, Bayada Home Health Care, Strive Physical Therapy, Coldwell Banker and Brandywine Living at Moorestown Estates.
“My personal goal for the run is to raise $40,000 for the 40th,” said race director Bill Van Fossen. “All the proceeds from our run go to Rotary charities, so we’re very big into local scholarships for needy students. We have Lend a Hand committees, so if there’s special needs that come up, some of that money goes to that …
“The Rotary run is not the only fundraiser for our club, but it is the largest.”
According to its website, the club focuses its time, energy and efforts on service projects internationally and locally, including the following: water and sanitation, maternal and child health, economic and community development, annual scholarships to local high-school students, dictionaries for all Moorestown third graders each year; food and clothing drives and volunteer opportunities.
Van Fossen has been involved with the Rotary for more than 40 years, and he says it’s been great to see how things have evolved.
“We have people that come back year after year,” he noted of the race. “For one of our sponsors – Steve Zalkind (Resource Investments Limited LLC in Voorhees) – we started giving him his race number when he was 50. This year, his race number will be 82.
“He still runs, so he’s been sponsoring for over 32 years, and I think it points to the kind of run we have.”
Coming down to the last two weeks before the race is always a little nerve-wracking, as Van Fossen described it, but he said it’s worth seeing how it brings people together and honors Coffee.
“Scott was a very active community resident and was just the kind of guy that everybody knew around town,” Van Fossen recalled. “ … It’s a fun family event. There’s a lot of other activities that are going to go on right after the event, so if you want to have a fun, healthy, outdoor kind of day, come, run the race, be here to cheer people on and enjoy Moorestown’s Main Street.”
For more information on the Scott Coffee Rotary run, visit https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Moorestown/ScottCoffeeMoorestownRotary8KRace.
