Volunteers still needed for Flora race

FLORA, Ind. (WLFI) - The "Home of Purdue Half Marathon" will be run, but not in Tippecanoe County where the university is located. Instead the event will be Flora in Carroll County.

Flora Community Center Director Don Franklin hopes just a few more volunteers will sign up to help with the race.

"We have more than 70 volunteers lined up right now from the community and surrounding areas helping with the race," said Franklin.

Franklin said it was a slow start gathering volunteers, but in the past few weeks more people signed up. He said the slow beginning could be because of the last minute request.

The town of Flora was asked to host the "Home of Purdue Half Marathon" after the event encountered issues in Tippecanoe County. Because Purdue, Lafayette and West Lafayette experienced problems with race creator Dean Rienke, the event moved to Flora.

Purdue is also taking legal action to stop the use of the name "Purdue" in the race's title. Despite the race's background the run is on in Flora. Franklin said in the past days he helped Reinke's race director mark the course.

"He was out a couple weeks ago and the last two days he was out in the community talking to people and some of our volunteers. He was also lining up specifics needed for the race such as local iga," said Franklin.

Franklin said the race now has the support of the local police and fire departments. Scott Sisson is the Chief of the Flora Volunteer Fire Department. He said the department will perform similar tasks, to what is asked of them at the Flora "Hog Jog" each Spring.

"It presented a little bit of a challenge. Hopefully we can rise to that. We're looking for a pretty good turnout of people," said Sisson.

Sisson said a fall race does present concerns other than the crowds.

"We are under a open burn ban. At this point we probably will just have to respond from our locations. We would also leave a crew back to respond immediately from the stations and make the surrounding departments aware so they could help with mutual aid," said Sisson.

The race is scheduled for October 24th.