Currently at the Memorial & Museum

INTRO FOR THOMAS HILL & CHET COLLIER
by Kari Watkins, Executive Director, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

Stanley Draper Award

Ten years ago, on the eve of opening and dedicating the Oklahoma City National Memorial…Hardy and I were walking the site with our minister and his wife—Marty and Kim Grubbs. At the end of the tour, Kim…an avid runner…pauses and says "Kari there are these two great guys in our church and they are going to come to you guys with a terrific idea…a Marathon."

"A Marathon?" I thought, "...hmmmm-sounds interesting..." obviously not knowing much about a Marathon I put it to the back of my mind...we welcomed President Clinton and more than 20,000 people the next few days to the opening of the Memorial site. Just as we wrapped up the opening week, Bob Johnson, our Founding Chair receives a call from Art Swanson.

Art said his buddies Chet Collier and Tommy Hill had an idea to share and they wanted to meet with Bob to share their dream. Bob was intrigued by the idea and said, "Yes, let's meet tomorrow." He called me to be at his office the next morning at 9:00 a.m. and I think Thomas and Chet worked all night putting their dream on paper.

Instantly we loved the idea and it didn't take much for the Memorial's Board of Directors to buy in. Bob, being the numbers-detail guy that he is, asked them to put pencil to paper and to make sure we could benefit from this if we all expended the right amount of energy. That was a decade ago...

"Dream BIG and work like the devil..." Those were the words of Stanley Draper. Well, these guys have dreamed big and worked very hard!

Just a few weeks ago, more than 22,000 runners filled our streets on the same weekend the OKC Thunder hosted our first NBA Playoff series...and the arts festival, all within blocks of each other downtown. It was an incredible weekend to be in DOWNTOWN OKC.

All because of a dream and a passion that Chet and Thomas had one morning while running. Today the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is listed as one of the 12 must run Marathons in the WORLD by Runner's World magazine. This race has become an OKC tradition where annually on each race day the streets are lined with people handing out water, cheering on the runners or having block parties to celebrate life.

The Memorial & Museum is privately owned and operated 501(C)3, and today has received more than $2 million from the OKC Memorial Marathon.

Thomas and Chet have done this on a total volunteer basis. There is no Marathon staff...there are hundreds, actually thousands of volunteers. But once or twice a month all year long, volunteer chairs meet with a few of our staff, led by Stacey Weddington, our Development Director, and this race is planned. Some amazing donors make it possible to pay for the cost of the event so that every race entry is a donation to us.

As you run, walk or relay the course, you see the banners of the 168 people who were innocently killed that morning on April 19th just a few blocks from here. It is that inspiration that motivates so many to cross the finish line after an agonizing 26.2 miles in the Run to Remember. It is that same inspiration that has kept these two "gentle" men focused on this race for more than a decade now. They are supported by their tremendous companies, Moon Royalty and KIMRAY, and their families on race weekend, it is an effort of many. But tonight, we honor Chet Collier and Thomas Hill, III with the 2010 Stanley Draper Award for Excellence in Downtown OKC.