Seaside Half-Marathon and 5K goes virtual

SEASIDE, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -

The local economy of South Walton relies heavily on tourism during the summer months- and to a large degree during the off-season when people visit for events and business trips.

But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many events- like the Seaside Half-Marathon and 5k- are moving online.

“The race brings about 4,000 people annually, and with that there comes friends, and family, and others to the town of Seaside, and we really safely could not plan for an event at those numbers,” said Teresa Horton, executive director of the Seaside Neighborhood School Foundation.

She said they’re still trying to raise the same amount of money as they normally do.

“Typically it raises over half a million dollars in support of the school, and the money is so important because it supports the operation of the Seaside school,” Horton said.

In August, the Destin Charity Wine Auction moved its event online because of the pandemic. They said they raised half as much as they would have if the event were in person.

“Well, it was quite a bit different as you can imagine, from a revenue perspective we did about 50 percent of what we would normally do, but that’s due in large part to the reduction in the number of auction lots we had,” said John Russell, executive director of Destin Charity Wine Auction.

They normally hold a large event in the spring that draws thousands of people to South Walton.

“Quite a lot, we normally build a huge tent with air conditioners and food and servers and all kinds of people involved with it... we weren’t able to do any of that,” said Russell.

The Destin Charity Wine Auction is presenting more than one million dollars to the nonprofits they serve.

Registration is now open for the Seaside Half-Marathon and 5k. You can register online here.

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