About Us
Rob Stephenson, past VUSD Board President, founded the Visalia Runners in the Fall of 1979 and became its first President. Since then, over 29 different people have held this position. It would be 17 years before the Club elected their first female president in Julie Serjak, School Psychologist, for Visalia Unified School District. Visalia Runners is the “oldest” running club in the surrounding Visalia area.
The club was initially a long distance running club and known for putting on races throughout the Visalia area. There very first race was in 1979 with the Spring Class 10k race at Mooney’s Grove Park. The club as since evolve into a more structure organization with a philosophy of advocating healthy living, welcoming runners as well as walkers and giving back to the community. They meet once a month for their monthly meetings. Meetings are held the 1st Monday of each month at the Visalia Lifestyle. Meetings start promptly at 7:00 p.m. Money for the club is generated through club dues, entry fees for events and donations. To keep members in touch, a newsletter entitled “Keeping in Stride” is sent to members. This publication covers race results, race schedule calendar, Club activities, and general running new in the area.
Other group activities are: 24 hour Cancer run (Visalia Runners were the one who brought the event to Visalia 21 years ago, thanks to Roger Sebert), one hour run in December, Xmas run thought the community, annual clubs picnic at Mooney’s Grove, January Dinner for in coming new executive board, helping organization in setting up racing events, and giving out it’s annual club member of the year and runner of the year. Present President is Connie Tavarez, School Nurse for Visalia Unified School District.
Here’s a look at the Visalia Runners logos, past to present:
