The Northwest Florida Track Club, Inc. (NWFTC) is hosting its 50th anniversary of the Billy Bowlegs 5K run to be held on Saturday June 1, 2024. This is our banner event, and we are striving to make this bigger and better than ever before and would like to elicit your help in doing so. Let me first tell you a little about the NWFTC and why we feel it’s important to gain community support.
The Northwest Florida Track is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that endeavors to support our local schools with funds that we raise throughout the year. Our primary revenue raisers are through local racing events that we organize, facilitate, and sponsor. These competitive and noncompetitive running/walking events encourage a healthy lifestyle while promoting athletics and physical fitness for our local youth and adults.
For the last several years we have donated money to each Okaloosa County and Navarre High School Cross Country/Track program. To date, we have donated more than $300,000 to the schools. In the days of dwindling school budgets, these programs are usually the first to feel the cut and we are very proud that as a small group, we have been able to make such a difference. The money that we have donated has been used for such things as new uniforms, running shoes for children who could not afford to buy their own, and to cover expenses for buses and entry fees for out of town meets that would otherwise have to come from the students and parents. In turn, the kids and parents come out to volunteer and support our events as a way of saying thank you. We cannot tell you how much this makes all the hard work worth it.
