Rock 102 gearing up for next week’s Mayflower Marathon

EAST LONGMEADOW, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - The annual Thanksgiving week drive, Rock 102′s Mayflower Marathon, begins on Monday and at a brand-new location.

Mike Baxendale and Steve Nagle, co-hosts of the Bax and Nagle Show on Rock 102 in East Longmeadow, are full of excitement because they will once again be leading the charge for the 29th annual Mayflower Marathon, where they will be doing a broadcast for 52 straight hours while money and non-perishables are dropped off.

“People can stop down and see us on the air and watch us do the broadcast. We do interview local politicians, local business owners, and even local people who come down and drop off donations. We try to get everybody involved with this thing,” Nagle explained.

The broadcast will also feature some celebrity guests, including West Springfield’s Mike Scully, who was a former associate producer for The Simpsons. They’re hoping to fill at least three 48-foot trucks with food. All of the money and non-perishables will go to Open Pantry, which helps about 30,000 families a year.

“This has become a long-standing tradition in western Mass. that you have people from all over the area looking to help out the Springfield Open Pantry, not only in western Mass., but Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, really all over New England. It’s more than a radio station event. It’s a full blown-out community event,” Baxendale added.

This week, we talk about Rock102’s Mayflower Marathon, which has a goal of filling three 48-foot trailers with non-perishable food donations for the Open Pantry

There is one change to this year’s collection: a new location. After their longtime site at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was not available this year, the marathon decided on a new home: outside MGM Springfield’s South End Market.

“We were inundated with remarkable ideas from a number of different locations, but at the end of the day, the best location and the one that kind of filled all of the requirements we needed was MGM Springfield. They really came to the table,” Baxendale noted.

The two look forward to helping the community again this year.

“More people are tending to use the services from the Open Pantry. It’s not just people who are homeless. It could be your next-door neighbor. This is why we need you to come down, give what you can, even if it’s one can of food. One can makes one big difference. That’s why we need your donations for this,” Nagle said.

Both hosts also asked that people not to bring any expired items to the event.

The Mayflower Marathon kicks off Monday at 6 a.m. outside MGM Springfield’s South End Market.

You can CLICK HERE for more information or to make a monetary donation to the Mayflower Marathon.

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