Knock, knock, here comes the bag lady

If she hasn’t come knocking on the door at your business, she will be soon.

Sandra Hunter is just one of the many volunteers helping prepare for the annual Tower Run, which on Friday, March 3 will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

This week she will be visiting businesses collecting spot prizes for the Tower Run.

She says each year she is always pleased by how the whole town supports the event.

‘‘Everyone is very generous, the whole business community gets right behind the Tower Run, it’s such an institution.

‘‘Everyone seems happy to see me.

‘‘As soon as I walk in with the bag I have used for a few years, they know I am there to collect.

‘‘I always think where did the last year go? It comes around so quickly.’’

And it has been a few years since Hunter started helping with the Tower Run, so she and her prize bag are a common sight in the weeks preceding the annual community event.

The Chronicle has been involved with the Tower Run since its early inception in the late 1970s and Hunter became involved when she started with the paperin 1985.

‘‘Its just a continuation of having being many years.’’

The Tower Run has evolved as the years have gone by and Hunter recalled how much simpler the organisation of it was when it first started.

‘‘We didn’t need traffic management plans and permission we involved for so used to just do it up the main street and traffic stopped.

‘‘But of course there wasn’t the awareness of traffic safety and compliance that there is now.

‘‘It’s fantastic that it’s survived for 40 years, and not only survived, but thrived.

‘‘It used to be in December and it has moved a few times, it’s good though, it’s great to see the university students come back for it.’’

Hunter’s involvement doesn’t stop with filling the prize bag, she also likes to get out on the track.

‘‘I have walked it a few times and I have enjoyed all of them but the one that is special for me is when the whole Victim Support team walked it.’’