Haliburton County’s iconic Highland Yard fundraising race is looking for a new home.
Places for People (P4P) announced last week it is relinquishing the charitable event.
With the help of past board member, and avid runner, Jack Russel, P4P took over the Highland Yard in 2012, going on to raise more than $200,000 for the housing charity.
However, COVID delivered a punch, forcing organizers to go to virtual events for three years. Rotaract had a crack at organizing the 2023 race, but found it to be a lot of work for little return.
P4P spokesperson, Susan Tromanhauser, said, “unfortunately, as happens, people get older and the usual support of the race for P4P has changed.”
She added, “the current board does not really see the link between running and housing and to be honest, we don’t have the capacity to do what we do and organize a running event.”
In recent years, P4P has focused on its Sleeping in Cars fundraiser, with the next one slated for March 21 at Head Lake Park’s welcome centre.
“So, the bottom line is, Places for People is looking for a new home for the Highland Yard. We don’t want to just end it as it is a Haliburton County tradition for 50-plus years and we are sure there must be some organization that could benefit from taking it on,” Tromanhauser said.
She added they have a lot of swag and other items they would be willing to pass on to a new organizer.
Russel is synonymous with the Highland Yard.
He recalls how it started with two Camp Onondaga staff challenging themselves to run from the camp to the Rockcliffe in 1971; a distance of 7.4 km. It became a community event in 1976. There have been numerous sponsors over the years until it landed with P4P.
Jack Russel: ‘I hope we can find a new home for it’
Lamenting no race in 2024, and P4P stepping away for 2025, Russel told The Highlander this week, “it is sad to see that a race of this nature is not being offered. There are a lot of people who always look forward to it and some of them would plan their holidays around it if they were at the cottage or on the lake when the race was offered.”
He’s been wracking his brain about who could take it over. “Who would be a good candidate? A sporting club… a sports store? I’m just not sure.”
He said it takes a lot of volunteers on race day. “And I think it takes a good cause. Places for People was a good cause and people got behind that and supported that and could raise money for that easily.
“Someone might be interested in taking it on, or someone might be interested in all the stuff P4P has acquired from running the race over the years.
“It’s always sad to see things not continued that are good traditions and good events and are healthy events for people. For the community to wrap itself around this as an engaging activity, it was wonderful for families to do this, and families enjoyed running the Highland Yard.
“I hope we can find a new home for it. I hope Places for People can find a new home for it… a good group that’s willing to take this on and use all the equipment that was purchased over the years. There must be 100 traffic cones.”
If anyone is interested, contact Tromanhauser at susan.tromanhauser@gmail.com.
It was always tradition for a bagpiper to send off the Highland Yard runners.
