CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — We are just a few weeks from the TD Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth.
This year's race beneficiary is The Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness. Beach to Beacon founder and Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson led a special training run Thursday morning with The Cromwell Center's race team, starting at the Ocean Gateway Terminal in Portland.
The training run is an opportunity to meet Samuelson and get tips from her on the best ways to prepare for the race.
The Cromwell Center is the sole provider of disabilities awareness, sensitivity, inclusion, and anti-bullying programs in Maine schools. Its executive director, Susan Greenwood, said they are the only organization in the U.S. that takes a hands-on, personalized, interactive, classroom-based approach. So far, the organization has partnered with 220 Maine schools and 8,000 classrooms. In the 2019 school year alone, it delivered face-to-face programming to 16,135 students in 92 schools.
Greenwood said the dollars the center receives would be used to expand its efforts to even more Maine schools.
To learn more about The Cromwell Center’s programs, visit this link.
The TD Beach to Beacon 10K needs more volunteers. If you can lend your time to help in any part of the race, click here to register.
The race begins on Route 77 near the Crescent Beach State Park entrance, winds along tree-lined streets and past breathtaking ocean vistas, and ends in Fort Williams Park at historic Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.
In 2019, the 22nd running of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K included 6,417 finishers from nine countries, 42 states, and almost 260 Maine cities and towns, according to organizers.
More than $90,000 in prize money is awarded to the top finishers and winners of various categories for men and women. A separate $30,000 donation by TD Bank is provided to a designated beneficiary each year.
For additional information about the race, visit this link.