Twelve years ago, Ronnie Ellis and her husband, Jerry, attended what she termed a small “get-together/road race” at the University of Maine. Ronnie was sophomore class adviser at Brewer High School and thought a road race might make a good fund-raiser for the class.

The Brewer High School Turkey Trot evolved and the 5K race has become one of the area’s most popular events. The 12th annual race was held this past Sunday with East Holden’s Tim Wakeland winning the men’s division in 15 minutes and 43 seconds and Northport’s Jo-Ann Nealey claiming the women’s division in 18:21.

“It has come a long way,” said Mrs. Ellis, the guidance department director at Brewer High. “It has become a nice community event.”

Brewer High School special education teacher and track coach Dave Jeffrey, who has been the race director for the past eight years, had 309 registrants this year and 270 of them finished.

“Overall, I’m happy with the race,” said Jeffrey. “The first race 12 years ago had about 42 people and it had gotten bigger and bigger every year until the last two years.

“I am worried about the numbers. We have to get more runners back out,” said Jeffrey. “The people in the running boom crew have become parents and they have other priorities now. That’s a concern all race directors have. But it was still a good-sized race this year.”

Members of the sophomore class at Brewer High have several responsibilities including obtaining sponsors and Jeffrey said 134 Bangor-area businesses chipped in approximately $3,000.

Turkeys are given out to the 36 winners in the various classes and Jeffrey also gave out 120 prizes in a random drawing. The top prize was $309 in cash ($1 of the $8 registration fee) which was placed into a paper mache turkey.

“Our kids do a great job going out to obtain sponsors and local businesses have been tremendous to us,” said Jeffrey, who estimated that the sophomore class will earn approximately $1,500 to put toward its graduation activities.

Wakeland and Nealey both overcame a little adversity to win their respective divisions.

“I’ve developed allergies, but I began taking medication last month and it has made a dramatic difference,” said Wakeland, who has won two of the three Turkey Trots he has entered. “It enabled me to start doing speedwork three weeks ago and that was enough to get my legs under me.”

Wakeland took the lead by himself early in the race, but had hoped somebody else would run with him so they could draft against the stiff breeze for each other.

“But no one did. They packed together behind me. When we turned to head back, I was relieved that the pack was 40 yards back. I was just hoping to hold on from there and I felt pretty good coming back (with the wind),” said the 28-year-old Wakeland, who is a physical therapist at SPORT in Bangor.

Nealey, who has been bothered by bunions on both feet, said she was happy with her performance, but noted that second-place finisher Paula Emery has been hampered by a hip problem.

“I figured Paula wasn’t in her best shape,” said Nealey, a first-grade teacher at the Peirce School in Belfast and the mother of two. “I went out hard for the first mile and did it in 5:39; I covered the second mile in 6:05 and felt real comfortable and I felt pretty good over the final mile and did it in 5:55.”

Nealey’s win was her fifth this season in the Bangor Daily News’ running series. The Brewer Turkey Trot is the 11th and final race of the series.