Danville wins ‘Most Spirited’ award for Bourbon Chase participation
Published 10:04 am Thursday, October 20, 2016
- Danville received the most spirited award from the Bourbon Chase this past weekend.
Danville has won its third “Most Spirited Community” award for its participation in the 2016 Bourbon Chase.
John Sheryak with the Bourbon Chase said there were a combination of reasons why Danville won the award this year, including contributions from the Convention and Visitors Bureau and its director, Jennifer Kirchner.
“Everyone is on board and supports the race and it builds the energy and makes it nice,” he said.
Several others helped out to make the event what it was this year including, Mayor Mike Perros, the Danville Police Department, the Danville Board of Education, Parks & Recreation and the people with the Boyle County Fairground.
“They all pitch in. Then you have the community, the residents,” Sheryak said.
Heart of Danville interim Director Nick Wade said he is excited to bring the award back to Danville after losing to nearby Stanford for the last two years.
“The City of Danville, Bourbon Chase organizers, CVB and the Heart of Danville all worked hard to create a fun, safe environment for the runners and their teams,” Wade said.
“Everyone loves when (the Bourbon Chase) comes through,” CVB Kirchner said.
This year, there were 6,000 team members participating in the 200-mile, day-long foot race, Sheryak said.
“This is the largest yet,” he said.
Bourbon Chase founder Mike Kuntz said they like to grow a little bit every year, but always want to make sure it’s manageable.
“Every year, John and I kind of wonder ‘is it too big this year?’ And we sort of thought that for a minute, but we had no complaints,” Kuntz said.
This year, there were people running from 47 states, Washington, D.C., and four countries — South Africa, Canada, Mexico and Scotland, Sheryak said.
Kirchner said some people who come through Danville for the race like what they see and end up coming back to visit the city.
“Our goal from the beginning was to create a tourism type of event, not so much a sporting event,” Kuntz said.
