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FLRC Newsletter - Sep 2003 |
| Phyllis Radke -- Co-Winner Hartshorne Memorial Volunteer of the Year 2002-03 | |
At last, we shine the spotlight on Phyllis Radke, who shares this volunteer honor with co-winner Tom Meyer. Like Tom, who serves as our Web master/multi-tasker and was profiled in our June 2003 issue, Phyllis -- our "Artiste in Residence" -- has logged countless volunteer hours behind the scenes.
This year marks Phyllis' 10th anniversary as an active member of the Finger Lakes Runners Club. From the first day she sneaked into a Barton Hall indoor meet and silently observed our track-smacking maniacs in action, Phyllis has offered us treasured and loyal companionship, with an eagerness to help all of her friends in the club.
You've seen Phyllis loading up her truck, and hauling race gear around the Finger Lakes National Forest. You've seen her manning aid stations at remote trail sites, and you've probably observed her, with a big pearly-white smile and clinched jaw, collecting $20 bills from late-registrants at the annual Ithaca 5 & 10. Any race that Lorrie Tily, Joe Reynolds or I were involved in, there was Phyllis.
Phyllis also served a few terms as a member-at-large on the FLRC executive board, until career-demands required her to step down, and she was a special secret sidekick with me in a few newsletter projects.
Lorrie and I also have recruited Phyllis for our women's team antics, and she's scored points in our victories in XC and the Empire State Games. Phyllis also especially enjoys running our trail races, and she won the women's masters title at this year's FLT 50s 25K.
All these activities would be enough to be selected for recognition. But Phyllis' lasting legacy in service to our club centers on her artistry.
From 1993 to August 2003, Phyllis has created 20 race T-shirts for the trail, track and road races our club presents to the community. She designed and then drew by hand (absolutely no computer graphics!) each and every logo for each of those 20 race T-shirts. Phyllis then experimented with colors and lettering, prepped the art for set-up and printing, selected T-shirt distributors, negotiated orders and pricing, and picked up and delivered those shirts to each respective race director.
Each art design, many times requested at the last minute by a race director we won't name (J.R.), reflects Phyllis' rich sense of style, her hilarious sense of humor and her immense depth of imagination.
The following is a list (in no particular order) of the logo art and T-shirts Phyllis is responsible for creating. If a number is noted after the art, that means the logo was used more than once. [Ed.note: Phyllis has reissued for this year's Ithaca 5 & 10 a beloved design created in the 1980s by Dorothy Sholeen.]
Almost everyone reading this tribute must own at least one of Phyllis' shirts listed below. My personal favorite is the 20th anniversary women's Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile art. My friend Laura Clark loved the 50s red bull shirt so much, she said it was reserved "for dress up only." Which one is your favorite?:
The 5 & 10 purple road runner (2); 5 & 10 Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs; the Monster Marathon cookie monster; the 5 & 10 Five & Dime; the 20th anniversary women's Hartshorne Mile; the Finger Lakes Snowshoe deer; FLT 50s cows; FLT 50s bear (2); FLT 50s Joe Reynolds' Hector poem; FLT 50s Virgil Hill; FLT 50s forest map; Danby Down 'n Dirty critters; 5 & 10 Stewart Park trees; 5 & 10 Bridge Out!; 5 & 10 Olympic figure; 5 & 10 Nickel & Dime buffalo; FLT 50s Red Bull (2003); Forge the Gorgeous tank (2003).
As her award for winning the Hartshorne Volunteer of the Year honors, Phyllis has received a T-shirt quilt sewn by Sam Familo, which contains all of Phyllis' T-shirt art plus additional T-shirts which represent special memories in Phyllis' running career, including the inspirational "pain managment" T-shirt substituted while Phyllis was out of commission and recovering from a broken back.
And there's one additional source of art which Phyllis has contributed to our "faster" club members or visiting runners: She hand-crafted numerous FLT 50s awards. (Not everything came from the Dollar Stores.)
Phyllis made the horseshoes on distressed barn wood plaques which were given to overall winners of the FLT 50s, and she's hand-painted rocks for 50s age-group winners.
Trail animal Alan Evans once told me he's not much for saving his awards (and there's plenty he's earned at our races). But there are two displayed in places of honor in his office at Corning, Inc. -- the moose on snowshoes and the mounted horseshoes on barn wood.
Congratulations Phyllis. We love you and appreciate everything you've done for us. We really loved surprising you with this most-deserved award! Be sure to read Phyllis' profile and my personal tribute enclosed; say "Thank you!" when you see her . And, pull out one of her race T-shirts from your collection and wear it with pride!
(Click for larger image)
For more on Phyllis, see the print edition of the club newsletter,
mailed each month to members.
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