Mid Atlantic Athletic Club (MAAC) is going back to its roots for its 25th birthday - literally.

Next Tuesday evening scores of members are expected to converge on the Botanical Gardens for a two-mile Fun Run to celebrate the club's silver anniversary and to pay tribute to its origins.

"That's how the club started in 1977. A group of runners felt the need for more activities because, unlike the race calendar you see these days which is jam-packed with all kinds of races, back then there was very little going on.

"We came up with the idea of trying a fun run on a Tuesday evening. I remember Debbie Butterfield saying `Let's try it for a few weeks and see how it goes'. That's how it started with a fun run at Botanical Gardens on a Tuesday evening in June and the numbers just kept increasing," recalled Peter Lever.

So at 6 p.m. on June 4 all interested persons are invited to join in this event from which sprung one of Bermuda's most active sporting organisations. Celebrations will continue next Saturday night (June 8) with a party and dinner at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Paget. It promises to be an evening of good fun and memories with members being asked to bring MAAC memorabilia. There will be a prize for the oldest MAAC T-shirt.

While proud of their history and contribution to the Island's athletics development, Lever admitted that he and other club founders could hardly have imagined marking 25 years when they began.

"We weren't sure how committed we were to what was nothing more than putting on a fun event when there was not much else going on. Once it took off though we got organised and found some very willing corporate sponsors and that had a snowball effect.

"I think we had 24 people the first week. The second week it doubled and by the third week numbers went up to the 70s and got close to 100 runners by four weeks. What was an experiment essentially grew into an official running club," said the former MAAC president.

Within six months - January 1978 - the club was suffiWithin six months - January 1978 - the club was sufficiently organised to hold its first official race; one they are pleased to see is still going today - the Princess-to-Princess Road Race which goes from the Hamilton Princess up to Whaler Inn at the Southampton Princess.

"That was the first of many races that MAAC started. A lot of them are still going albeit with different sponsors over the years and there are some newer events as well. One of them is the very popular Pro Shop Junior races where you have hundreds of kids running in different age groups.

"There are also many races in which we recognise the ordinary runners as well as the winners," noted Lever who, along with Jim and Debbie Butterfield, Garry and Sharon Wilkinson, Jeff Payne, Bob Oliver and David Saul were among MAAC's pioneers. There are now around 300 members.

Another source of club pride is the many outstanding MAAC competitors who have represented Bermuda. For example, the trio of Garry Wilkinson, Raymond Swan and Jim Butterfield represented the Island in the marathon in the 1978 Commonwealth Games. Nowadays, personalities such as top female runner Anna Eatherley and her husband Brett Forgesson, a former president, carry the club's banner.