Water Relief Success In Giving Cups To Runners Is All In The Hands
Little Naisia Bailey was the queen of the last outpost, also known as the final Bloomsday watering hole.
Volunteers compete over who hands out the most cups of water to racers. At the eighth and final water table in front of Broadway Foods in the West Central neighborhood, 9-year-old Naisia distinguished herself as one of the best.
By her count, she quenched the thirst of at least 100 runners.
“You’ve got to lay your hand down flat and put the cup on it,” Naisia said of her technique. “If you’re grabbing the cup that makes it harder for the runners to take it from you.”
The 4-foot-5-inch girl had an unusual height advantage over her counterparts. She’s shorter.
“I’m down here, where most of the runners’ hands are,” she said.
Naisia was one of 157 volunteers who manned the water station, most of whom were from Fairchild Air Force Base.
She’s been a water girl for the past three Bloomsdays.
“It’s nice giving runners stuff to drink,” the Spokane girl said. “If I were running, I’d want some water, too.”
The job starts off slow. Most of the wheelchair racers and elite runners don’t take water.
But after 40 minutes, when the not-so-elites reach the last water station, parched racers start grabbing - and volunteers get drenched.
Fairchild volunteers Melissa Sweitzer, 19, and Julie Holt, 21, did more than distribute water. They dispensed moral support.
“I’m a runner, so I appreciate it when I get that applause from the crowd,” Holt said.
“This is incredible, I’ve never seen so many runners,” Sweitzer said.
It was the first year Fairchild employees served as water distributors, said Capt. Chris Eichorst.
“We were told to bring 80 to 100 volunteers,” Eichorst said. “We ended up bringing about 130.”
Some 58,000 cups and 6,500 gallons of water later, the volunteers called it a day.
“We probably had more volunteers out here than we needed,” Eichorst said. “But that’s Fairchild. We do things to excess.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo