SPOKANE, Wash – Bloomsday is the joy of running together, and just several feet from Spokane City Hall, you’ll find art reminding yourself of that every day.
The Joy of Running Together is a public work of art in honor of the annual Spokane Bloomsday Run. The art is comprised of 40 human-like sculptures – some kids, some male, some female, and some in wheel chairs.
Dave Govedare is the artist, who created the figures back in 1984. Each sculpture represents someone who raced in Bloomsday.
“I knew who some of these people were at one time,” Sylvia Quinn, former Bloomsday executive director, and lifelong runner said.
These rustic metal bodies represent the fierce, determined racers of Bloomsday.
“It takes a lot of endurance and strength and determination to get up the hills,” Jerry Martin, a former Bloomsday wheelchair athlete said. “It was a real honor for me. It’s something that I’m pretty proud of.”
“Someone got ahold of him (Govedare) and told him that I did the race this year and he got ahold of me and asked me to come up to this house in Chewelah. He laid me out on cardboard and drew my outlines.” Martin recalled.
Each figure was sponsored by someone and costed around $1,500, according to Quinn.
All of the sculptures honor the hundreds of kids, abled bodies and people with disabilities that run and wheel Bloomsday.
Martin, himself, has finished Bloomsday 25 years in a row in a wheelchair. Quinn has finished all 47 of them.
“The fact that the disabled people can go out and contribute in abled bodies races … I’m proud of it and it makes me feel good,” Martin said.
It is the joy of running together and the pride both Quinn and Martin have in hearing their sculptures are inspiring others.
