Ragnar Relay finding way to help
Wasatch Back starts by teaming up with Operation Kids
Successful sporting events often create a significant impact in the communities they are held.
Sometimes that is purely a financial one where participants roll into town, spend a few dollars at the local diner, rent a motel room and fill up a gas tank before leaving.
The Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back wants to be more than just a few thousand people filling garbage cans as the primary indication they were around. Instead, the Ragnar Relay organization teams up with Operation Kids to make a lasting difference in the communities the athletes pass through on their way to 188 miles of continual running.
"We look for ways to make a joint effort to improve the health and fitness of kids," Sara Nichols, a spokesperson for Operation Kids Utah, said. "So we help them find organizations and get fundraising money to them."
Working together since the 2005 event, the organizations have selected Best Buddies of Utah as the 2009 recipient of their charity.
Best Buddies, which pairs volunteer mentors with intellectually and developmentally delayed individuals, has chapters in communities up and down the Wasatch Front and across the country.
The funds donated by teams, individuals and other Ragnar Relay associates will be used to create new Best Buddies chapters at high schools as well as fund an annual Best Buddies 5k run/walk in the communities the relay passes through.
"One hundred percent of the donations we get will go directly to Best Buddies," Nichols said.
For their part, the Best Buddies will be staffing aid stations at checkpoints 12 and 30 along the route. They will also participate in a finish line celebration.
"We have a firm commitment to accountability," Rick Larsen, president of Operation Kids, said, "and a desire to change the way the world looks at charitable giving, by providing a more effective way to help children in need."
In an effort to boost the donations, the Ragnar Relay organizers held one of the coveted entries to the race open and auctioned it off on eBay.
The winning bid was $1,200.
The relay starts Friday morning in downtown Logan and most of the teams made up of as many as 12 runners will run around the clock until they reach Park City sometime Saturday afternoon or evening.
An estimated 9,000 runners will be involved in this year's race.
E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com
Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back
Friday and Saturday
Starting Line: Merlin Olsen Park, Logan
Finish Line: Quinn's Recreation Complex, Park City
Distance: 188 miles
Info: RagnarRelay.com
Comments
- Today on TV 12:49 a.m.
- Wanted: Bank robber with bad breath 12:40 a.m.
- Philippine police clash with clan 12:28 a.m.
- Officer responding to call killed 12:28 a.m.
- Editorial: Fine-tune state workweek 12:18 a.m.
- Let's keep energy money in the U.S. 12:18 a.m.
- How to pay for the war 12:17 a.m.
- Feast of Guadalupe nourishes soul 12:17 a.m.
- Obama's strategy is a road map 12:17 a.m.
- Letters: Create livelihoods 12:17 a.m.
- Y., U. to learn bowl destinations
- BYU and Utah's bowl games
- BYU professor remembered
- The forgotten ship: USS Utah
- Branch president without a congregation
- BYU basketball: Cougars crush Dons
- Utahns want health care reform bills
- Kurt Bestor: Joy for the world
- Jazz upset by Wolves
- Urn of baby rests with sailors
- Letters: Liberal because LDS
257 - Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
214 - Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
189 - Aggies shoot past Cougars
179 - N.Y. Senate rejects gay marriage
130 - George lost in rivalry hatefest
113 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
110 - Unbeaten BYU takes trip to Logan
105 - Ed Smart 'appalled' at testimony
97 - Harpring's NBA career is over
95
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting (perhaps speculating) that Utah...
I got some e-mail from Aggie fans regarding a column I wrote last week...
Sorry earlier I meant to say that tracks seems to travel at 35 miles an hour...
'Peter Frumhoff, the director of science and policy at the Union of...
The Non-BCS crowd ought to create their own title game...their own brand, and...
That's the whole of your defense of GOP resistance to badly-needed ethics...
Your criticism should hardly be focused on Bennett alone. What about all the...
'Wired's Threat Level blog reported on November 20 that Gavin Schmidt, a...
The reality of climate change is supported by multiple lines of evidence and...
I had the priviledge of staying in the LeBaron home on severl occasions as I...
So the unemployment rate has dropped to "just" 10%, huh? I wonder what that...
Ahh for the love of money...what money can buy!!!




You can be the first to comment on this story.