Treadmills and parties don’t usually mix well, but at next week’s massive Wine and Tequila Party on April 16, they’ll be going hand in hand.
The four Boston CEOs on TUGG’s Boston Marathon team will take turns running a treadmill relay in the middle of the party, which expects about 2,000 attendees. They’ll be working out among a crowd of tech and social entrepreneurs who’ll be drinking premium donated wines and tequilas.
The runners–Matthew Bellows of Yesware, Brent Grinna of EverTrue, Michael Schmidt of Nutonian, and Fred Shilmover of InsightSquared–have been training for the Boston Marathon for months with coach Erik Hajer. And with race day on April 20, their Wine Party workout just four days beforehand will be one of their last runs.
The spectacle is designed to draw attention and donations to the four TUGG nonprofits that the team is running for: Career Village (Bellows), BUILD in Boston (Grinna), Science from Scientists (Schmidt), and InnerCity Weightlifting (Shilmover). Like all TUGG nonprofits, each is a local, youth-oriented organization promoting entrepreneurship, life experience, and/or education.
A raffle taking place around the runners will raise money for their respective nonprofits. One of the most coveted raffle items is a pair of VIP tickets and round trip airfare to the BottleRock music festival, happening next month in Napa Valley. This year’s BottleRock performers include No Doubt, Snoop Dogg, Imagine Dragons, and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.
Donations gathered from the raffle are a piece of the total $400k that TUGG expects to raise that night. A portion will become grants for three new and three returning nonprofits based on a community vote at the event, which will take place in a 35,000 sq. ft. space in the Fenway neighborhood.
In addition to supporting the runners at the Wine Party, spectators can cheer them on Marathon Monday at the Startup Mile, an enormous spectator bash on the day of the race that includes food, beverages, noise makers, bright t-shirts, games, and real-time GPS tracking (powered by Boston-based RunKeeper) of the runners on their journey to the finish line.
The Wine Party is almost sold out, but any remaining tickets will be available on TUGG’s website.
