2014 Bill Lott Volunteer of the Year Award

Volunteer: a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task. Synonyms include- subject, participant, case patient, and guinea pig.

The person who has been selected as the 2014 Gulf Winds Volunteer of the year is certainly a person who fits this definition. Rain or shine, hot or cold, this person can regularly be found volunteering before, during, and after many of the local races, often with his beautiful daughters in tow. He has served on both the Gulf Winds Track Club and Gulf Winds Tri Club Board of Directors. He is a lead volunteer with the South City Multisport Club, running buddy for the fall Girls on the Run 5k, the race director of the Palace Saloon 5k, and he even created his own race ‘The Waverly Two Fun Miler” as a way to celebrate the New Year with friends, all the while continuing to run 40 to 60 miles per week. 

What do you call the guy, who once rode his bike through the Dunkin Donuts drive thru, purchased a dozen donuts, carried them on his handlebars 5 miles back to the transition area just as a way to say thank you to the Red Hills Triathlon race volunteers? 

Well, I call him my friend and the recipient of this year’s  Bill Lott Volunteer of the Year Award for 2014 –  Mike Burns.