Mayflower Marathon returns to MGM Springfield for second year

Date: 11/6/2023

SPRINGFIELD — Thanksgiving is on the horizon and for many people that means it’s time to donate to Open Pantry Community Services through the annual Mayflower Marathon.

This year’s marathon will start at 5:30 a.m. Nov. 20 and conclude at 10 a.m. Nov. 22. The 52-hour event, presented for the second year at MGM Springfield, will be the 30th time Rock 102 has collected both food items and money for the emergency food pantry and the 29th time Mike Baxendale — known as “Bax” to thousands of Western Massachusetts listeners — has participated in it.

He explained to Reminder Publishing the food drive started in 1994 as a simple effort at the radio station’s office with the second year growing with the goal of filling a single truck.

“It kept getting bigger and bigger,” he said. This year the intent is to fill four trucks with donated food, he added.

“It’s not really a radio station event, but a full-blown community event,” he said.

Nicole Lussier, the managing director at the Open Pantry, said the impact of the food drive is considerable.

“This is exactly a life-saving event for our agency,” she said.

The food gathered at the marathon supplies the need of the emergency food pantry for nine months, she said. “Without it we would have to beg for more donations, more money.”

She said the pantry is seeing people who are “not typical” and explained that due to inflation more and more people are seeking the organization’s services.

Last year, the marathon set a new record of $179,514.08 and Lussier said the organization was extremely grateful not to just the public but also to MGM Springfield, which stepped in as the host site after the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame asked the marathon to find a new location.

“It was phenomenal. It worked so well,” she said of the new location, “MGM was so welcoming to us.”
Lussier asked people who donate food items to make sure it has not reached an expiration date and suggested “any kind of canned good, anything a family would need.” Canned meats and peanut butter are among the most desired items, she added.

Either food items or cash donations are welcomed, she added.

Both Lussier and Baxendale spoke of the preparation the event requires. Lussier said the pantry reaches out to the volunteers needed and get their warehouse ready for the influx of the donations.

“There is a lot of planning,” she added.

For Baxendale and his co-host Steve Nagle, the event includes “an endless number of partners” who supply the trucks, tents and the RV used by the staff, among other things.

As far as the programming goes — Baxendale and Nagle book a stream of celebrity interviews for the event — that planning starts in October. “We are still in the middle of planning the broadcast,’ he said.

Added this year to the fundraising was a comedy show presented on Nov. 2 at MGM Springfield with Nagle, Baxendale and comic Marty Caproni with special guests Brian Plumb and Katie Arroyo. Baxendale admitted he had not performed standup comedy since 1994 and said with a laugh, “It’s a little daunting.”

He added that after the event closes at 10 a.m. he goes home and sleeps a few hours and then he and Nagle attend a Springfield Thunderbirds game that night where more donations are made. He lauded the Thunderbirds management for their involvement in the marathon.

After 29 times, Baxendale is still enthusiastic about the marathon.
“It’s such a great event and one I’m so proud and passionate about,” he said.