• Event Filled Saturday in Wildomar

Relay For Life is a 24 hour event where people walk to raise money in efforts to find a cure for cancer. In years past, the Wildomar teams have been at Canyon Hills Middle School, Elsinore High School and this year at Vista Murrieta High School on Clinton Keith Road, just east of the 215.

Bob and Margie Amos participate in the "Survivors Lap" which kicked off the event on Saturday morning. If you look closely, you can see a "spirit stick" being held by Bob (detail of the stick is seen in a photo below).

At the closing ceremonies, it was learned that more than $91,000 had been raised at the event. The original goal was set at $80,000.

There were several teams from Wildomar present. Here is a look at the Wildomar Walkers' station. In the foreground you can see top of the team's "spirit stick" which was topped with photos of Stan Smith and Doug Lech (not visible here), both of whom died from cancer during the past year.

There are many awards given out to the various teams for one accomplishment or another. The award for most laps went to a member of the Wildomar Walkers, Doug Ames. He logged 211 laps, which is more than 56 miles, while being on the track all 24 hours of the event.

Taken during one of Doug's first few laps.
Inset taken during one of the themed laps later in the day.

At the same time, there was the third annual ALS1 5K at Marna O'Brien park. Much as I tried to be in two places at once, I was unable to pull it off... so I'm borrowing some of Bridgette Moore's pics from the event to share here. ☺

A group shot of the winners from the various age group categories.

The amazing part about this event is that the promoter, a local family that has been touched by the disease (ALS), has really emerged as community leaders. 

Click this link to read more about Ken and Erin's motivation for this event, which was covered in a 2016 blog.

Both Ken and Erin Hartley have shown tremendous grit and willpower getting this event to come off so well for the last three years... and if organizing such a thing weren't enough of a task on its own, Erin just gave birth to the couple's fourth child in late March.

Somehow I managed to photobomb the group shot that features the Hartley family.

I got my request for the event stats in a bit late for the publication of this blog (numbers of runners, amount raised), but will put them in this spot once I receive them.

The Rotary Club of Wildomar helped raise funds for the charity by manning the beer garden.

Pictured from left to right: Ben Benoit, Jaimie Benoit, Dana DeJong, Joseph Morabito, Bridgette Moore, Andy Morris, Martin Haeberle (in the back), Erin Hartley, and Ken Hartley.

The last thing on the busy Saturday list was the kickoff of the Rooted in Nature Craft Brew Festival up at the visitors center at the Santa Rosa Plateau. 

A look at the taster glasses that have been designed for the event.

I've really been impressed with the amount of planning going into the event... it's not even scheduled for another year: May 18, 2019. 

It was first brought to my attention last year. It was mentioned in a blog dating back to August 2017. 

LINK to past blog.

The program cover (front and back) from the kickoff event.

It's going to be held at Marna O'Brien park, and the aim of the event, besides having a world class event in Wildomar, is to raise funds for the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation.

Click this link to visit their website to hear their mission 

The committed craft breweries include: 
         •  Garage Brewing Co
         •  Stone Brewing
         •  Coronado Brewing Co
         •  Karl Strauss Brewing Company
         •  Ballast Point
         •  Wiens Brewing Company
         •  Inland Wharf
         •  Aftershock
         •  Craft Brewing Company
         •  Ironfire Brewing Company
         •  8-Bit Brewing

The festival is scheduled to be from 3pm to 6pm (with a VIP early access set to start at 2pm). Entry fees haven't been established yet.

Ginger Greaves discussing the 2019 Rooted in Nature Craft Brew Festival.

For more information about the event, or if you'd like to be one of the sponsors, contact: 

Ginger Greaves at (909) 732-2209, ginger@SRPF.org

or

Herb Massinger (714) 264-0311, herb@naturebrewfest.org

Visit the website, ask some questions.

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"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."
– Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)

Wildomar Rap would lay even money that Flannery would say ten times that about bloggers if she'd been aware of the concept during her lifetime.

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