FAIRVIEW 5

Congratulations Devan!!! This is Devan's second year of putting together a non-profit activity he calls the Fairview 5. College kids who are invited to get together to 1)shoot, 2)run, 3)bike, 4)swim and 5)kayak for a trophy and other prizes. The winner also gets the opportunity to choose who they will donate the proceeds to thru Kiva.org. A Micro-loan organization to third world countries. Devan meticulously designed the T-shirts - didn't they turn out nice!

We began early Friday morning loading up all the bikes, gear and food to take up to the Howell Family Cabin. Once there we started marking all the trails and swimming and kayaking routes. Later in the evening we enjoyed a good dinner and fun around the campfire. The kids kept arriving all throughout the evening. Only one car (Ryan and Rachel) got lost and took and extra two hour tour of the mountainside. Around 11pm everyone set up their tents or found a place in the attic to settle down for the night.

Everyone was up early the next morning getting their bikes ready for the race. I was surprised how competitive they all were about the race.

The plan was to begin by shooting down in Cabin Hollow. Depending on how many targets each person shot they were able to take time off the race portion, up to 5 minutes. From there they were driven back to the cabin to begin the running portion. They ran about 2-3 miles along Skyline Drive looping back to the cabin where they jumped on their bikes and rode down a crazy back country trail for about 6-7 miles to Gooseberry Reservoir. Once they arrived at the reservoir they had to drop their bikes in the parking area and sprint to the water to jump in (very cold water) and swim about 100 yards. After swimming they marked down their time. They were able to rest a bit and wait their turn to kayak a timed course on the reservoir. The two times were added together and they subtracted their shooting score.

At 9:30 the last group of kids arrived to participate and the vehicles took off for the shooting portion of the race. From then on the race was on.

After the race was over and stomachs were allowed to calm down we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast provided by my mom and dad for all the participants.

After we returned back to the cabin Devan had an awards ceremony for those who took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Devan's roommates Karson and Phil took 1st and 3rd place with Ryan Seguin taking 2nd place. Dallen completed the course in 1 hour 6 minutes a great achievement! As a side note: the kids needed our vehicles to transport everyone back and forth to the shooting area so we were not able to leave for Gooseberry to set up breakfast until they left on their run. We expected it would take them about 1 1/2 hours to arrive. We were extremely surprised to see the first racer coming around the corner after 45 minutes. They were FAST!!!

The winners were able to choose what gift they wanted from the corporate and family sponsors and then they had a makeshift awards platform where they shook up sparkling cider to spray on each other!

It was a great day. Devan had around 25 participants. Some arriving early Saturday morning only to participate, and then head back. We were extremely glad that no one was hurt more than scrapes and scratches. The bike ride was a dangerous course according to me and an adventurous course according to Devan. Everyone enjoyed being together on such a beautiful day, surrounded by such beautiful scenery. When we got back to the cabin and were visiting we decided that Grandpa Howell who built the family cabin, but has been gone for 19 years now would probably have been very proud of Devan and also of having his cabin used for such an activity where people could gather together and find peace and enjoyment in the beautiful view he choose to look at from the family room and deck. Grandpa Howell enjoyed sharing and loved his Fairview mountains! We are still waiting the final total of how much money will be donated to Kiva.org to help those in need start their businesses. Overall if the success was to be rated on smiles and fun I think it was all 100% a success. That is all up until the time we were headed home and were stopped at a road block completely and totally exhausted from such a long day and told that the mountain rode we take to get home was closed due to a fire and we would have to take the back roads to get out. Adding another hour or more to our trip. UUUGGHHH! Love ya Devan!! You did a great job!