A popular local rail trail will have to make do without its biggest annual fundraiser.

Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail Association, said the board of directors reluctantly canceled the 15th annual Buffalo Creek Half Marathon, which is held each year Oct. 17.

“It was for the safety of everyone,” Ziegler said.

She said the board decided it would be cost prohibitive to hold the race if coronavirus protocols were put in place, as portable toilets would need multiple sanitations, runners would have to pick up their packets instead of volunteers handing them out, and water could not be handed off to runners on the trail.

“There were just too many surfaces,” Ziegler said.

Having 900 to 950 runners at the starting and ending point would have compromised the safety of the many volunteers who serve at each year's half marathon.

“Most of our volunteers are older, so we had to think of them too,” Ziegler said.

The half marathon brought in about $38,000 each year, which Ziegler combined with about $10,000 in donations to pay for portable toilets along the 20-mile trail, gas and maintenance on equipment used on the trail, insurance and the inevitable downed trees or trail repair associated with rain and ice storms each year.

“We're only going to be able to do what we can do,” Ziegler said.

She and the board are considering a variety of smaller fundraisers to bolster the trail's bottom line.

“We're never going to make up $38,000,” Ziegler said. “It's going to take us all year to not even raise that much.”

Luckily, the trail is now in good shape because of extensive work done last year, plus the lack of rain this summer.

“I feel pretty good on the condition of the trail right now,” Ziegler said.

Still, she said an ice, rain or wind storm could cause large trees to fall across the trail.

“That is something our volunteers can't take care of,” Ziegler said. “You need to have a professional come in.”

She said runners she has talked to have been understanding, given the coronavirus pandemic.

“They said we made the right call,” Ziegler said.

The trail association is not the only entity being affected by the cancellation of the half marathon, as Ziegler normally donated $2,500 to the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department for its work at the race.

Runners were also asked to bring nonperishable food items for the Cabot United Methodist Church food pantry, and a donation was made to a handful of Boy Scouts troops for manning water stations.

Ziegler said she hopes to at least hold a food collection event in October for the church.

“It doesn't just impact us,” she said of canceling the half marathon.

Ziegler looks forward to holding the popular event next year.

“We'll be back bigger and better than ever in 2021,” she said.