The Miami Lakes Veterans Committee voted to approve a set of vendors, event deadlines and fundraising steps to support the town’s December 13 5K and related activities.

Committee members approved using a single vendor (identified in the meeting as “Safeguard”) for bags, shirts and medals, accepted an in-kind sponsorship that will place the vendor’s logo on race bags, and added the committee’s and the town’s 25-year anniversary logos to merchandise. The group set bag-stuffing dates for Dec. 8 and Dec. 9, a packet pickup date of Dec. 12 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Headquarters Toyota, and asked that the race vendor be contractually required to have systems live by 9:45 a.m. on pickup day.

Why it matters: The actions lock in logistics that affect vendors, volunteers and participants and allow race promotion and registration to begin immediately, including an early-bird registration price window the committee plans to promote this month.

The committee’s practical decisions were led by members and volunteers who reviewed vendor quotes and schedule constraints. Committee members said the chosen vendor offered lower unit prices — for example, the presenter said bags previously cost $1.59 and the new vendor quoted $1.50, and t-shirts were reduced from $6.20 to $4.50 — and that the vendor will donate bags in exchange for logo placement. The group approved adding the veterans committee logo to bags and using the town’s 25-year anniversary logo on shirts.

Committee discussion and votes
- Motion to approve Safeguard as the vendor for bags, shirts and medals and to allow the vendor to place a logo on bags as an in-kind sponsorship — moved and seconded on the record; members said “Aye” and the motion passed. (Mover and seconder named in the transcript; no roll-call tallies beyond the verbal “Aye.”)
- Motion to add the Miami Lakes 25-year logo on all merchandise — moved, seconded and approved.
- Motion to adopt the light-blue shirt color and the town branding guidelines for artwork — moved, seconded and approved.
- Motion to set age-category awards and overall awards: nine male places (including first/second/third overall) and nine female places (age groups: 12-and-under; 13–19; 20–29; 30–39; 40–49; 50–59; 60–69; 70-plus; plus overall 1st–3rd). Motion moved, seconded and approved.
- Motion to schedule bag stuffing Dec. 8 (11 a.m.–6 p.m.) with Dec. 9 as a secondary date if needed; motion moved, seconded and approved.
- Motion to designate Dec. 12 (10 a.m.–7 p.m.) at Headquarters Toyota for packet pickup and require the contracted race vendor to be operational by 9:45 a.m. on pickup day; motion moved, seconded and approved.
- Motion to set the social media/marketing budget at $2,000 (same as the previous year) with flexibility to reallocate funds to paid race-listing sites if needed — moved, seconded and approved.

Details committee members cited
- Unit prices: presenter said previous bag price was $1.59; new quote $1.50. T-shirts reportedly dropped from $6.20 to $4.50 per shirt with shipping included. Medal quotes cited: Ruben $4.10 each versus Safeguard $3.95 each (transcript figures quoted by committee members).
- In-kind sponsorship: the vendor requested logo placement on bags in exchange for donating the bags; committee approved the arrangement.
- Deadlines and production: final artwork and logos were requested by Nov. 1 and vendors were asked to deliver merchandise on or before Dec. 2 where possible; the committee set a registration pricing cadence they plan to promote (launch/early-bird price windows were discussed: $25 early rate, $30 mid window and $35 on race day, per the transcript discussion about website dates).
- Sponsorships: Headquarters Toyota and Humana were reported as confirmed sponsors (Humana’s confirmed amount was stated as $2,500). At one point a spreadsheet line in the meeting recorded a value read aloud as "$2,012,500 confirmed"; committee speakers discussed that figure in context but did not clarify whether it was a data-entry error.

What remains: Committee members asked staff to add a clause to the race contract requiring the timing/registration vendor to be on-site and operational by 9:45 a.m. on packet-pickup day and to confirm final counts and medal allocation rules with the medal vendor. They also asked the vendor to confirm whether shirts in alternate colors alter unit costs and to provide final shipping estimates.

Quotes
"He asked if he could do a like kind sponsorship, if he could put his logo on his bag," committee member (unnamed in transcript) said while describing the vendor offer, and the committee then approved the logo placement as an in-kind sponsorship.
"We will tell on November 21 at end of business, print the shirts, you got all of those. That's it," a committee member said when describing the final sponsor/artwork deadline for shirts.

Ending
The committee closed the item with multiple procedural motions approved on the record and asked members to continue recruiting sponsors and to share social-media artwork once it is available so the town can launch registration and promotion as soon as the vendor posts the event online.