Manatee 5K ends after 21 years

HARRISON TOWNSHIP — On Saturday, Sept. 28, the 2024 edition of the Save the Manatee 5K took place at Lake St. Clair Metropark amidst damp conditions. As imperfect as such conditions are for outdoor events, perhaps it was fitting. The first event took place in the rain and, 21 years later, the final outing occurred in similar conditions.

For over two decades, the Save the Manatee 5K has been a staple of Harrison Township as the brainchild of Lesley Argiri, a schoolteacher from the township who became a 5K runner through her husband, Brian McDonald.

“I noticed that all these 5Ks we were doing were fundraisers, so I thought why not try to raise money for manatees with a 5K,” Argiri said.

The first race in 2003 drew 150 participants despite rainy conditions.

“It was pouring rain the morning of and all of us met at L’Anse Creuse High School,” Argiri said. “I said, ‘You guys we’re just going to have to cancel it, look at this weather,’ and (the student volunteers) were like, ‘No, Mrs. Argiri, we worked so hard, we’ve got to do it.’ By the time the race started, the weather was amazing.”

Finding a nonprofit to benefit from the race was a key part of planning for the original event, and the longtime manatee fanatic knew a cause in support of the maritime mammal was one worth supporting. Through her research, Argiri found out about the Save the Manatee Club, a Florida-based nonprofit founded by former Gov. Bob Graham and recording artist Jimmy Buffett. The nonprofit works to protect manatees and their habits around the world through supporting research, rescue and rehabilitation programs, lobbying for laws that would help protect manatees and raising public awareness of threats facing manatees.

As the years went on, the race continued to grow. By the mid-2010s, Argiri estimates registration was regularly in the 1,000 to 1,100 range. Argiri regularly held the race around Memorial Day weekend at the Metropark. Her connection with the Save the Manatee Club grew as well with the race being a big benefit for the organization. Cora Berchem, the club’s current multimedia director and research associate, met Argiri and McDonald in 2013 while making a documentary about manatees. Berchem has gone on to be a key figure working between the race and the club, coming up every year to operate an information table and supplying the race with a giant inflatable manatee.

“It’s been absolutely amazing to see how this race has grown,” Berchem said. “People always question why we have a manatee race in Michigan when there are no manatees in Michigan, and I always tell them we have very dedicated supporters in Michigan who put this on for us. It’s been really mind-blowing to see how far away from Florida there’s so many people who come out to support this cause.”

Along with its support of the race, the Save the Manatee Club has shown its support for Argiri by making her the namesake of a Florida manatee that was under the club’s watch in 2014. Leslie the Manatee’s first calf was struck by a boat that winter, and Leslie herself was struck by a boat in 2015 and left with a large wound. Her condition worsened over the winter of 2017-18, leading Leslie to be taken in by SeaWorld Orlando for rehabilitation in March 2018. After several years of surgeries and rehabilitation work with the SeaWorld team, Leslie went back into the wild in January 2021. She was found dead in 2023.

It was during Leslie’s stay at SeaWorld when Argiri had a chance to meet her namesake, visiting in 2019 with Berchem and McDonald.

“It was awesome to see the manatee, seeing and understanding what that animal went through,” Argiri said. “They’re very resilient animals. It was awesome. It’s not like they were expecting me to come there and they had anything. Cora, Brian and I went to the pool she was in and just kind of watched her and looked at all of her scars. She seemed like she was very healthy and doing well and seeing her there compared to what she was years ago was amazing.”

As well as things were going, the march of time took its victims. Student volunteers dried up when Argiri retired from teaching, family demands were beginning to grow and the cost of setting up the race and supplying participants with gear and food only got more expensive. The sudden onset of COVID-19 in 2020 marked a major turn, with fewer participants signing up in the following years even with a virtual 5K being established well before the pandemic. Only 300 runners — a sharp decline from the prior decade’s near-and-over 1,000 participants — turned out for the final race.

But when the couple told the club they would host their final race in 2023, the club responded by asking to continue holding the race itself. While Argiri plans to help the club set up the continuation race in Florida, the task of executing the event falls upon the club’s staff.

“We have to look for a good location,” Berchem said. “We have to see where we can hold this, what time of the year we can hold this. It’s going to be a lot to organize but just seeing Brian and Leslie’s example of how they have done it up here, I really think that we can do it down in Florida.”

Berchem expects the event may take a year or two to get set up in Florida.

The end of the Harrison Township 5K is bittersweet for Argiri. It is never easy ending something that has been a staple of your life and the lives of others in your community for over two decades. Cleaning up and throwing out old race materials on the following Sunday, she could not help but cry.

“I had a breakdown. I started crying,” Argiri said. “It was sad because if I could just do the day-of event, I would do this until I couldn’t do it anymore. But it’s all the work that you do to put the event on that is just overwhelming. It’s hard. I’m not getting any younger. There’s no one really helping us out.”

But over the 21 years the race has raised around $500,000 in the name of supporting manatees. Numerous manatees have been adopted through the efforts of the race, and in the process a seasonal-staple event has been added to the Harrison Township community.

“I feel that we’ve made a difference in the environment,” Argiri said. “Just getting people to learn about all of the problems that manatees suffer from and just getting them aware of what’s going on, I think we’ve had a huge impact. I’ve had a lot of emails thanking me and a lot of kids coming back telling me they’re pursuing marine biology or some kind of conservation effort because of their involvement in the manatee race, so that makes me feel really good. I feel we’ve made a huge impact on the community that was involved in this, and we raised a lot of money for the manatees.”

Even with the race itself finished, the Save the Manatee 5K virtual race is still ongoing until Dec. 31, 2024. To sign up and participate in the virtual race, visit savethemanatee5k.com.

To find out more about the Save the Manatee Club, visit savethemanatee.org.