Queen City Mischief & Magic brings tourists and local residents together this weekend for fun and community, but also raises awareness about Staunton’s local nonprofits.
One of the local nonprofits is Blue Ridge Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), which coordinates two races on Saturday morning for “Harry Potter” fans. The races are the biggest fundraisers for the organization in Staunton and Augusta County.
“It is a lot of work but it’s also a big fundraiser for us that helps support our mission,” Angela Crawford, Blue Ridge CASA Interim CEO and Director of Operations, said.
Since 2017, the second year of QCMM, CASA’s Firebolt 5K and Race of 100 Harrys have raised $130,000. The funding has allowed CASA to place trained community volunteers with children who are navigating through Virginia‘s foster care system.
Before QCMM, Crawford said that CASA held a smaller 5K event called The Superhero 5K. QCMM creator and organizer Sarah Lynch reached out to see if the organization would be interested in adding their 5K to QCMM every year. In the “Harry Potter” books, Harry is a child in the foster care system.
“It felt like it aligned with our mission very well,” Crawford said. “And we believe there are a lot of great stories that begin with foster care just like Harry Potter’s and this was an opportunity for us to kind of amplify that, amplify our own stories.”
Nearly 100 are registered for the 2024 Race of 100 Harrys on Saturday morning, including 60 who will race in person at Gypsy Hill Park. The Firebolt 5K has 470 registrants and approximately half will race in person.
In 2020 and 2021, QCMM went virtual for the COVID-19 pandemic so CASA shifted the races to provide virtual options. According to Crawford, 900 registered from every state in the country, Canada and Russia in 2020.
“So, we’ve left that virtual option for the people who have started in 2020 and stuck with [QCMM],” she said.
Crawford said that before QCMM she knew very little about the books or films, but now she watches the films every summer and notices details she did not previously notice.
“I am definitely a through and through Potter fan now for sure,” Crawford said. She said that participating in QCMM by organizing the CASA races has been “fantastic.”
QCMM has provided nonprofits like CASA a further social media reach.
“What I really recognized in Sarah and in the other head founders of the festival is they realized they had a very powerful platform,” Crawford said. “They had a huge social media following so they started bringing in nonprofit and now we have access to their platform. So we have the opportunity to share our mission and the work that we do with all of their followers.”
Crawford said she appreciates Lynch and the other volunteers for their thoughtfulness in thinking to include local nonprofits.
“We appreciate this community’s support. We appreciate Queen City Mischief & Magic’s support and everything they do to put this together.”
CASA will have a booth at QCMM on Saturday, September 28, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. where character wands will be available for sale.
CASA has a small staff with heavy work to do, but, Crawford said, QCMM “invigorates us in our mission.” And the organization feels the support from the community.
This year’s races are sold out. Registration for 2025 will begin in June 2025 and Crawford said registration is usually full by the end of July.
A full schedule of QCMM events is available online.
Related stories:
Staunton: Queen City Mischief & Magic creates weekend escape (augustafreepress.com)
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Rebecca Barnabi
