Charity race to take flight on Northampton Airport runway
People, not planes, will be speeding down Northampton Airport’s runway on April 23, when the small, privately owned airfield shuts down to air traffic and transforms into a 5K race route to raise money for the Treehouse Foundation, an intergenerational living community for foster children and older adults.
The idea for Northampton runway 5K first came to Bob and Andrea Bacon, the owners of the airport, when Andrea was brainstorming fund-raising ideas for the foundation as a member of the organization’s development committee. The original plan was to host it in the 60-home living community in Easthampton, she said.
“We’d have to figure out where people would park, and it’s kind of a circle, so that would be so boring, to just keep running around and around,” Bacon said. “It was my husband that came up with this idea and said, ‘Why don’t we let everybody down the runway, and have a 5K at the airport?’”
Bacon said she thought it was a unique idea — until she Googled it.
“Up popped a bunch of runway 5K’s that people do around the country,” Bacon said. “So it’s actually not that novel an idea . . . But it’s kind of a thrilling thing for people to do.”
Planes scheduled to fly into Northampton Airpor t that morning will have to circle the air or choose a different flight path while the runway and tarmac are occupied by more than 280 runners and walkers for an hour during the 5K, which reached registration capacity more than three weeks ahead of the event, Bacon said. After being cleared of walkers, the runway will then reopen to planes while participants take part in crafts, games, and other activities inside an airplane hangar, where they can watch planes land and take off. The airport will also welcome spectators and visitors to join the fun and view the airplanes without needing to register in advance.
“[Andrea] just flew with the idea — pardon the pun — and opened up the airport, which is a big deal,” said Julie Kumble, director of strategic partnerships for the Treehouse Foundation. “It’s like closing a business.”
In addition to raising money through registration fees, organizers will encourage peer-topeer fund-raising, partner with business sponsors, and hold a drawing for top fund-raisers to receive a scenic plane ride over the Connecticut River Valley. Bacon said she hopes to make the 5K a legacy event and open up the runway each year.
“Because it is at the airport, and the theme is ‘helping kids soar’ and lifting them up, we thought it would be really apropos,” Kumble said. “It’s beautiful out there. We have a view of the Holyoke mountain range, it’s open, and when the airport is operational . . . you see planes taking off and landing, and kids love planes.”
Northampton Airport owns two World War II military training aircraft — a Waco and a Stearman — that will be displayed on the tarmac for participants to view up close, Bacon said.
“They’re beautiful planes and we hope to have them parked right by the start and the finish,” she said.
Kumble said the 5K at the airport, which is known as the “home of friendly flying,” is an appropriate reflection of the Treehouse Foundation’s intergenerational model, which creates planned living communities for children who have experienced foster care and their adoptive families to “re-envision foster care in America.”
“We’re calling it a walk, run, meander, saunter,” Judy Cockerton, executive director of the foundation, said of the runway 5K. “It’s an intergenerational community event designed to raise money for the Treehouse Foundation and the work that we do in Western Massachusetts.”
The money from the runway 5k will go toward the 120-resident planned neighborhood of parents, kids, and elders, and toward the foundation’s HEROES Youth Leadership Program, which supports people aged 14 to 24 who have experienced foster care.
Of the children raised in the Treehouse community, which depends not only on adoptive parents for support but also on older adults acting as caretakers and “honorary grandparents,” 95 percent graduate from high school, according to data on the foundation’s website. One hundred percent go on to college or vocational training, much higher than national foster care averages.
“It’s really not rocket science,” Cockerton said. “It’s common sense and humanity, it is making sure that every child is rooted in family and community.”
The foundation will have a table and staff the runway 5K for attendees to learn more about the program and model, which is expanding to a second neighborhood location in Mattapan. The race will take off at 9 a.m. April 23 at Northampton Airport, located at 160 Old Ferry Road.