June 5, 2015 pre-race preparations celebrated perfect weather and found teams making sure bikes were delivered, money was turned in and waivers signed. Excitement was buzzing among the rainbow of colored t-shirted teams. We had a shout out from the Adorable Mrs. ND, Angelina Yarbrough who headed out a Kinship “Team Pink”, team & group pictures taken by Duane and Kim Strand, Perry Miller does announcements with gusto and team intros with such team names as The River Rats, Grapplers, Pink Unicorns and Gummy Bears, E-lemon-ators, Not fast, but Furious and Potato Boomers. The pre-race anticipation grows until finally the kick off challenge is read and 11 competitive teams bolt into action followed 15 minute later by 12 family teams!
The opening Kinship challenge has teams slinging wet sponges with a 3 person slingshot to the rest of the team who tries to catch and squeeze them into a jar, requiring them to fill the jar before receiving the next location! Gales of laughter as teams figure out how to sling the sponges and watch team member’s jump and dive for sponges!!
It’s off to the zoo for another one of zoo director Kathy Diekman famous and dreaded Chahinapa Zoo challenges: one person from the team had to choose a Dixie cup that held a zoo animal snack…you were lucky if you chose a monkey biscuit or old fruit….!!
Teams headed off at a lope past the golf course and on to NDSCS to retrieve bikes which they would ride the remainder for the race.
CNS gym hosted the Red River Valley Sportsman Club Air Rifle Club Challenge. here a team member had to hit a paper turkey from 50 ft using an air rifle with a 2 handed standing position. Hopefully someone from your team is a good marksman!
From there teams headed across Wahpeton to the Leach Library where library director Greta Guck gave 2 team members a library scavenger hunt to complete before heading off to the downtown street dance area to test their physical prowess at the Snap Fitness Challenge; choosing either Jacobs ladder or pushups, both with a weight vest to complicate matters but acceptable in relay style. From there teams headed to the Wahp-Breck Area Chamber of Commerce Challenge where they completed a minute to win it type cup stacking challenge.
Teams made their way thru the downtown crowds, booths and music back to the Dike bike path headed north to Chahinkapa Park football field where the entire team participated in the Backyard Bass Fishing Challenge facilitated by Campbell Fun parents! Taking turns with a fishing pole, teams each had to “catch” a fish, totaling 6 fish before taking off across the park to the last challenge; the Kinship Canoe challenge! 2-3 people had to canoe out to find the duck decoys and bring back 3 different colored ribbons. After completing this last challenge it was a dash to the finish line to receive medals, post race picnic and exchange stories while waiting to choose the team race prize!
A few bikes limp across the finish line and each team has its own race adventures, but ear to ear grins, groans and laughter follow the team. Race memories with friends and family members are priceless and the support the race lends to kinship youth mentoring is as well.
The 2015 Challenge Sponsors are always amazing and create a never the same unique course that the teams did great with! Thank you for the fun and brilliant challenges! The Kinship Board does an amazing job manning the different areas and all the coordination that takes! Kinship is so blessed by its board of directors!
We are thankful to our 2015 T-shirt and Medal sponsors that are sported on the backs of the t-shirts: Bremer Bank, Cargill, Minn-Kota Ag Products, Norby Krueger Tax & Bookkeeping Services, Ottertail Power and Youth and Community Prevention Coalition
Top 3 teams in the competitive division were: Traitor Joes, River of Life River Rats, Wilkin County
Top 3 teams in the family division were: Potato Boomers, Team Haire, Not Fast, But Furious
All teams are winners however, and were such great sports. Each received medals and thanks to our generous prize sponsor this year every team was able to all go home with a prize to split between them. The biggest winner is Kinship however, which raised NEARLY $7,000 for youth mentoring thru the teams working to raise entry fees for the race! All year kids are able to have mentors and benefit greatly from that relationship as a result of every person who participated in some way in Kinship’s Amazing Race!!
We hope you will join us next year for Kinship’s 10th Annual Amazing Race on June 3, 2016 starting at the Hughes Shelter in Chahinkapa Park! This will be a special race with 10 CHALLENGES to celebrate our 10th year!!
Thank you to our 2015 Prize Sponsors;
Ace Hardware, Action Realtors,Ag Country Farm Credit Services, Bois de Sioux Golf Club, Breckenridge Dairy Queen, Breckenridge Drug, Buds, Blossoms & Blessings, Chahinkapa Zoo, Chanhassen Dinner Theater, Cinema 6 Theater, Corner Drug, Dairy Delight, Dekalb-Asgrow Seeds (J. Christensen), Domino’s Pizza, El Toro Mexican Restaurant, Farmer’s Union Oil of Southern Valley, Fargo Air Museum, Fargo Force, F-M Red Hawks, Giant Snacks, Hairetage Hallmark, KBMW Radio, Lakes Radio, Le Mar Photography, Lovin’ Nutrition, Minn-Dak Farmer’s Co-op, Minnesota Vikings, NDSCS Alumni Foundation, Nuseed America, OSPTI, Pebble Lake Golf Club, Red River Valley Fair Board, Simonson’s, Skateland Skate Center, Sky zone Fargo, Subway, Terrace Lanes, Three Rivers Gymnastics, Thunder Road, Trollwood Performing Arts School, Wahpeton Drug & Gift, Wahpeton Floral, Wahpeton Parks & Recreation – Wayne Beyer, YMCA of Cass & Clay Counties