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Nothing validates a novel idea better than watching it pass the test of time.
Now in its 10th year, the Tri-Valley Turkey Burn Family Fun Run has done just that. True to its original vision, an estimated 2,500 registrants will again participate in a 5K or 10K run, walk or stroll in Pleasanton’s Ken Mercer Sports Park before sitting down for traditional Thanksgiving dinners later in the day.
“The Turkey Burn has become a community tradition,” said Michael Cherman, 2024 organizing committee co-chair. Participants have returned year after year to enjoy the sports park’s autumn setting, the exhilaration of a morning walk or run, and to wear the event’s iconic racing bibs, which have become a key part of Turkey Burn’s appeal. It attracts families, couples, circles of friends, individuals, infants in strollers and obedient dogs on leashes.
The bibs, first suggested by Turkey Burn co-founder Ron Sutton, are especially popular with children, although most adults decorate and wear them as well. Even one of the oldest participants at a recent Turkey Burn event wore a bib that announced, “I am thankful for … being 80 and still running in this race!” Her husband’s bib read, “Me, too!”
The bibs are one of several reasons that Tracey and Sean Ford and their sons Clark, 12, and Grant, 10, have attended the event six times since the boys were infants.
“We love every year reading what people are grateful for. That is just fun. Some make you laugh. Others make you think. It is a great way to get insight into people’s lives and what they are going through,” Tracey Ford said.
As life-long Pleasanton residents, the Turkey Burn has been a great way for the Fords to reconnect with old friends and classmates who gather at Mercer Park for the fun run/walk when they return home for Thanksgiving.
It has also been a measure of how their sons are growing up. When they were younger, Tracey and Sean carried Clark and Grant on their shoulders to see the race from start to finish. “Now they run it, and we can’t keep up,” she said.
The Pleasanton North Rotary organizers have kept the Turkey Burn affordable by using its members for on-site volunteer support. The need for police and park department services was minimized by containing all but a short section of the 5K and 10K courses within the park and along the Arroyo Mocho Trail.
Registration costs $15 for adults over 18 years of age, $10 for youth 10 to 17 years old, and $5 for children under 10. For details, visit the Turkey Burn website, www.trivalleyturkeyburn.org.
Sign-in starts at 7:30 a.m. next Thursday (Nov. 28), with the 10K race getting underway at 9 a.m. and the 5K following at 9:10 a.m.
Donations to the Tri-Valley Haven Food Pantry are another tradition. Participants are urged to bring canned or boxed goods, or non-perishable food items for collection at the Tri-Valley Haven truck at the staging area entrance.
Corporate sponsorships are essential to the Turkey Burn’s success, organizers said. This year’s event is again presented by Elation Real Estate. Other major sponsors include Aura Advisors, BNJA Insurance and Financial Advisors, Inc., Cal Water, ENT Networks and Big O Tires, Pleasanton.
Net proceeds will be distributed as grants to local youth-oriented service organizations and to support PNR’s own youth service programs in the Tri-Valley. The Turkey Burn raised $34,600 in 2023 for these programs.
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and Rotary International Youth Exchange are especially noteworthy, according to Turkey Burn co-founder Kevin Greenlee. RYLA is a week-long summer camp, run by Rotary District 5170, which provides guidance to PNR and 62 other Rotary clubs located in a wide arch from Oakland to Santa Cruz to Palo Alto.
RYLA teaches leadership skills to about 200 high school students annually. Using Turkey Burn funds, PNR has awarded about seventy prized scholarships to Tri-Valley high school students.
“The RYLA experience is invaluable,” Greenlee said. “I’ve seen numerous examples of RYLA becoming a life-changing experience.”
Rotary’s International Youth Exchange has also been influential for the 24 Tri-Valley students who have received monthly stipends drawn from Turkey Burn funds to spend a year living and studying abroad or to roughly the same number of foreign students who received assistance from Rotary clubs in their home country for similar experiences in Pleasanton.
Outbound students to six European and South American countries have gained fluency in second languages and adapted to foreign cultures in school and the homes of their host families, Greenlee said. Students from 10 European and Asian countries have enriched the learning experiences of their classmates at Foothill High while experiencing adventures of a lifetime.
Laura Klein, a well-traveled 26-year-old teacher near Mainz, Germany, and former exchange student, exemplifies the benefits of the Youth Exchange experience.
“Moving to a different country at the age of 16, at a time when young adults are forming their identities, helped me become the open-minded, independent, curious and ambitious woman I am today,” she wrote in response to an inquiry for this article.
Klein’s experience is one of many successful stories that originated with funding from the Turkey Burn. Ask anyone associated with the event in its first 10 years, and most will admit it is a novel idea, one they expect will endure for many years to come.
Editor’s note: Jim Brice is a Pleasanton-based writer, photographer and member of Pleasanton North Rotary.
Nice article about what appears to be a great event. It would have been helpful, though, to include the date and time of the event in the article which, according to their website is Thursday, Nov 28 at 9:00 am