The 28th Annual Gobble Gait is set for 8:30 a.m. Thursday Nov. 27.
This year’s race will feature singer Lorilei Harman singing the national anthem with National Guard members waving the flag over the Highway 61 bridge for a second year in lieu of displaying the flag on a fire engine.
In the months leading up to the event, organizers from around the community met weekly to finalize the details from signage to water stations to working with Hastings Police to close streets.
“There’s a lot of community support,” said DawnMarie Vihrachoff, Director of Philanthropy with Hastings Family Service.
The race is a timely event, set to raise funds for Hastings Family Service (HFS) just as SNAP benefits begin to roll out after the longest government shutdown in US history. That gap in aid comes while HFS has been experiencing continued record-breaking levels of need.
Last year’s Gobble Gait raised $131,000, the single greatest amount raised in a single year while also breaking the $2 million milestone across the lifetime of the event.
That figure is up more than 28-fold since the first year of the event, which raised $4,600 in 1998.
In that time, the race has grown to more than 2,000 runners each year, making it one of the largest Thanksgiving Day runs in the Twin Cities, according to the Gobble Gait website.
The full 8-kilometer race costs $50 and comes with this year’s T-shirt. The 2-kilometer race costs $25 per individual or $40 per family.
To sign up for the event, visit www.gobblegait.com