As the school year heads into the final quarter, many students find themselves scrambling for quick and easy service learning hours to meet the new Bright Futures Scholarship requirement of 25 hours.

Local 5K, marathon and other races are an outlet for students to volunteer by contacting the race director.

“If you just show up on race day and ask, they can probably put you at an aid station or something,” local race director Matt Mahoney said via email.

Most of the races are organized by race directors or the Running Zone. Space Coast Runners has a monthly newsletter that publishes stories and results about local races.

“All of the races can use volunteers to hand out water at aid stations or direct runners at intersections or call out mile splits,” Mahoney said.

Experienced volunteers can also do timing at the finish line and results, which is typically the Running Zone or other timing companies handle.

Mahoney said several people volunteer at each race. Marathons, such as the Space Coast Marathon might have hundreds of volunteers.

The Space Coast Runners Club has a Runner of the Year series on 10 races and gives awards in May for points earned during the series. Eight of the races have been run. The two remaining are the Downtown Melbourne race on March 31 and the Space Walk of Fame on April 14. Two more races also remain in the Titusville racing series, which has prize money.

“I direct two small, free races, the New Year’s Eve 5K and the Wickham Park Marathon,” Mahoney said.

A majority of the races are scheduled at http://mattmahoney.net/scr/cal.html and http://www.spacecoastrunners.org/trs.htm.

“It’s nice knowing there is something I can fall back on in case I get behind [in my hours],” seventh grader Alexa E. said.

By Taylor Eenhuis

Editor’s note: Brevard Public Schools policy prohibits the use of middle-school students’ last names on its websites.