Very early August 1, hundreds of runners gathered outside the Budweiser Tour Center in Fort Collins to begin the Wild West Relay.
Over the next 30-plus hours, this 195-mile relay had runners working through the 100-degree prairie heat at midday to 40-degree cold while going over mountain passes at night before finally ending at Steamboat Springs High School.
Of the 128 teams that finished the race, at least two had a friendly philanthropic rivalry going.
Partners Mentoring Youth and the Matthews House each had 12-runner teams in the race. In addition to training, members of these teams raised funds with ice cream promised to the team raising the most money for their organization.
This is the second year the Matthews House has had a fund-raising team and first year for Partners Mentoring Youth. It was also the first year for the friendly competition.
"This has been an incredibly fun event to be involved in,'' said Joyce Dickens, resource development director for the Matthews House and a runner on the team. "Everyone on the team showed tremendous enthusiasm in their running and fundraising and the community has really gotten behind the team. I expect we'll be lining up a team, or maybe two, again next year. I'm looking forward to it."
The Matthews House team came out on top, raising just more than $7,000 and finishing the race in 31 hours, 29 minutes and 26 seconds. Partners Mentoring Youth raised more than $3,500 and finished the race in 31 hours, 28 minutes and 57 seconds.
Partners will be providing The Matthews House with an ice cream party Monday with plans to receive the ice cream in 2009.
"While the ice cream is a fun way for our organizations to get together, the ultimate goal of the fundraising was to serve more youth and young adults in Larimer County," said Chris Imsland, executive director of Partners Mentoring Youth. "And by raising over $10,000 combined, both organizations accomplished that."
The Matthews House (www.thematthewshouse.org) is a nonprofit organization that serves youth ages 16 to 21 with little or no family support by providing mentoring, counseling and independent living and interpersonal life skills classes.
Partners Mentoring Youth (www.partnersmentoringyouth.org) creates and supports one-to-one mentoring relationships between positive adult role models and youth facing challenges in their personal, social and/or academic lives.
