• Saturday Two-fer

A look at the flags at Marna O'Brien Park.

Saturday April 16th, 2016 will be remembered for a couple of things in Wildomar. 

First, that it had two big events at the same time, and that the wind tried to blow both of them off the map.

Note, it wasn't the city that did the double booking. Perhaps those hosting events (I'm talking to you Relay ☺) in the future can coordinate with the city so as to avoid concurrent functions.

The Relay for Life event began early on Saturday morning and the wind was gusting like it was determined to blow the third little pig's house down. 

It certainly played havoc with many of the easy-ups —at both events. I saw more than one suffer damage. The savvy campers either took theirs completely down, or at least removed the covers, so that the wind couldn't turn them into sails.

The flags were really moving as Chrissy Rohlmeier presided over the opening ceremonies.

It started with an opening ceremony, which included the national anthem being sung by Wildomar city clerk Debbie Lee and a "survivor's breakfast" provided by Annie's Cafe. 

Two notes on the breakfast. 

First, the food was delicious as always, even though the wind did provide a little extra seasoning (a fair amount of dirt landed on the food if you ate in the tent. It looked like pepper... even in the orange juice.) 

Second, Annie (AKA as Jan Vyse) braved the wind and did the bulk of the heavy work herself (no paid staff that I saw), though she did have some help with dishing up the vittles.

Thanks Annie... errr, I mean Jan, and her volunteers. ☺

Wildomar should see about annexing Annie's into the city. ☺

After breakfast was the opening lap known as the survivors lap. This is where those that have battled cancer, designated by purple tee shirts, make the first loop on the track.

As the lap was nearing the Wildomar Walkers booth.

Not long after the start of the relay, I went over to the Rotary BBQ. Though the wind was a factor, it wasn't blowing with near the same force as at the high school. 

Still, the parks crew had prepared and had upwards of 100 sand bags to weigh things down. (Oh what fun it was to collect them after the event was over).

The Rotary had many baskets that were raffled off during the day.

In addition to the great live band (Life Time Rocker) there were many booths at the Marna, among them were Wildomar girl scout troop 658, ACE Hardware, Terri Holladay, and of course The Rotary Club... as it was their event. ☺

Pictured are Stella, Ryley and Sonnet.

Confession time, I'm not much of a BBQ guy myself (hope that doesn't put me endanger of losing my man card), and the only food I tasted came from the city's grilling wizard.

I didn't get the name of this unsung hero, but his ribs were the best!

Among the many duties that Mayor Bridgette Moore was attending to, unofficial photographer was key among them. If you follow her on Facebook, you had real time updates from both events.

Mayor Bridgette Moore taking a pic of some of the Rotary crew.

Boy Scout Troop 332 took care of the trash detail, and despite the wind and sun, they did a great job of it.

Some of Troop 332's finest keeping the event litter free.

After the event was over, it was time for the awards. There were a ton of them, so I'm only going to report the overall winner... it was Big Poppa Smokers.

Councilmember Ben Benoit, Mayor Bridgette Moore, Jessie Taylor and Big Poppa. 

After helping stack chairs and wrangle sand bags (that were actually filled with stones) I went back over to Elsinore High School and the Relay event.

The wind hadn't let up, and many teams had packed it in, but more stayed and had a blast in spite of it. 

Once the sun went down, there was a slide show that featured pictures of loved ones that have died from cancer, or have had it and are survivors now. 

Directly after the slide show was the luminaria lap. 

A luminaria is a paper bag that has been decorated, usually with the name of a loved one that has lost a battle with cancer, and then a candle lit inside. 

A dicey proposition with the wind, but thankfully the wind was all but gone by the time they lit the candles in them. Last year they had glow sticks.

On one set of bleachers read the word "CURE" and the other side had "HOPE".

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The event didn't officially end until 9:00am Sunday morning. Between the 40 plus teams, they were able to raise more than $25,000 for the cause.

There is post Relay fund raiser slated for April 30, 2016. It's an afternoon of BINGO at the Elks Lodge. The cost is $25 and the prizes start at $100. If interested, check the flyer for details.

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I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

— Jimmy Dean

Wildomar Rap reminds you: that it's always better to be upwind than downwind... except, of course, at a BBQ.