This year’s community hiking event will start and finish at MGM Cotai, as the Macau-U.S. gaming operator becomes title sponsor of the TrailHiker, the Times learned. The working date for the activity is October 28, and by then MGM’s Cotai property should be operating as the HKD24 billion project is expected to open during the second half of the year.
The company announced yesterday that it is the official title sponsor for the 2017 TrailHiker, which has been renamed the “MGM Macau Eco Trail Hiker.”
Entering its eighth year, the annual TrailHiker hosts two race-team events, a 10-km and a 30-km event, and has grown to approximately 2,000 participants.
The initiative “successfully attracts the local community along with international tourists to enjoy physical fitness in Macau’s natural environment while supporting donations made to local charitable organizations,” the organizer and the new title sponsor said.
The MGM Macau Eco TrailHiker “is the most popular and the largest group-hiking challenge in Macau.”
According to the organizer, the event was born out “of a strong desire to organize a sports event that involved team entries instead of individual entries.”
The event, founded in 2009, aims to promote the green side of Macau, teamwork, environmental awareness and contributions to the community. Each year, there are around 2,000 participants joining the activity and over 200 volunteers are recruited to ensure the safety of the event, which has had Sands China as title sponsor for the past six years, after PokerStars sponsored the first edition.
“From its longstanding support for the Macau TrailHiker” MGM takes over as the main sponsor this year.
To date, over 1,100 MGM employees from 275 teams across different departments “have enthusiastically participated in the 10km Fun & Family and 30km Corporate Challenge courses,” the company revealed.
Grant Bowie, chief executive officer and executive director of MGM China stressed that “MGM supports the Macau government’s goal to organize major international sports events, and we are proud to be the new title sponsor for this successful event.”
Moreover, the new title sponsor “looks forward to sustaining its future growth,” Bowie said, adding that “MGM Macau Eco TrailHiker gives local and global participants an opportunity to simultaneously enjoy the scenic trails and raise money for a charitable cause.”
This has been the organizer’s goal since day one.
“Promoting health, sports and teamwork among the public while giving back to local charitable organizations is at the heart of Macau Eco TrailHiker. We are very grateful for the overwhelming support received from the previous title sponsor, Sands China, and from individuals and corporations, which has made this event a success over the past years,” Robert Kirby, director of Macau TrailHiker told the Times.
Kirby, as the organizer, is also “extremely excited to welcome MGM as our new official title sponsor, and we look forward to welcoming all hiking fans to this meaningful event again soon.”
In an exclusive interview with the Times, published on these pages, Grant Bowie, a veteran participant of the Trail- Hiker himself, said MGM wants to take the event to the next level, and that implies attracting more of the local youth to join in.
“A critical point for us is sustainability. If we can keep it going [to a point] where we get intergenerational participants […] then we had achieved it,” he said.
The registration for the 2017 event will open from June to early July.
Macau Daily Times is TrailHiker’s official media partner
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