Jul. 17—NEWBURYPORT — “The Bachelorette” contestant Christian Smith is scheduled to join Mayor Donna Holaday as judges when competitors in the second Yankee Homecoming Waiter/Waitress Race sprint down Liberty Street on Aug. 2.
Smith is an agent with Keller Williams Realty Newburyport and he recently appeared on the 17th season of “The Bachelorette”.
The Yankee Homecoming Waiter/Waitress Race was restarted, after years of dormancy, when Anchor Stone Deck Pizza server Leanne Paparella brought home the Ryan Kelley-designed trophy in 2019. The race had to be cancelled last year during the pandemic, but wait staff from Newburyport get a chance to compete again next month.
According to race organizer Cheryl Munick, the event is designed to bring attention to local restaurants and wait staff.
“Although we have a lot of tourists and people coming into town during Yankee Homecoming, they aren’t necessarily visiting our restaurants,” Munick said. “So we wanted to come up with a creative idea to draw attention to our amazing restaurants in Newburyport.”
The short foot race runs up and down Liberty Street in front of The Daily News, and requires runners to carry a loaded tray through a restaurant-themed obstacle course while avoiding distractions like flying breakfast cereal.
“Everybody had a ball watching and cheering on the obstacle course,” Munick said. “If you have a favorite restaurant, please ask your favorite server to come down. This really is just to draw some attention to them.”
According to Munick, only Newburyport/Plum Island wait staff will be allowed to enter the race, which also gives a chance for the local restaurants to get their menus out to the public.
“We encourage the restaurants to bring a copy of their menus down and any incentive that they want to come up with to draw people into their restaurant during the Yankee Homecoming festival,” she said. “So, the marketing is all up to them. We will have a table down by the race route and they can get it all out there.”
The table will be set up in the newspaper’s parking lot.
Any of the participating wait staff will also need to wear a t-shirt with a logo of their restaurant while running the race. The first place male and female competitors will receive $250 each, while the second place man and woman will receive $150 each.
According to Munick, the city’s restaurant community needs all of the help it can get after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled last year’s Yankee Homecoming events.
“The race is fun to watch and, for the servers who can partake, they will have a greater opportunity to win the cash prize,” Munick said.
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has also created a unique challenge for the race organizers.
“We all know that the restaurants are really short-staffed right now,” Munick said. “We already have some restaurants who told us that they can’t do it this year. But we also have others that are like, ‘yes, we are gathering people right now.’ The first year of the race we had 51 servers but we figure we probably will get about hopefully 20. It will still be fun and entertaining.”
The race will take place on Monday, Aug. 2. Registration will take place from 3:30 to 4 p.m., while the race begins at 4:30 p.m.
“It really didn’t take that long the last time,” she said.
Yankee Homecoming Waiter/Waitress Race website: https://yankeehomecoming.com/event/waiter-waitress-race/
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.