Last Saturday, the Great Davis Race was held in Downtown Davis.
The Great Davis Race was a scavenger hunt held to raise money to help Japan recover from the recent earthquake and tsunami. The proceeds will be given to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Fifty participants were present. The teams participating were Ducky and Kitty, Wednesday Alco-Ballers, Davis Dollars, Pew Pew Pew, Team Ninja Unicorns, The Hunters, Nick Lai and the Roving Roma, The Avengers, Bull’s Eye and Tsunami Slayers.
Davis Dollars completed the race in one hour and 37 minutes, with the last team finishing in a little over four hours.
“This fundraiser was a tremendous success,” said Lamar Heystek, former city council member and organizer of the fundraiser. “Even the teams who didn’t win told us they had such a fun time that they would do it again next year.”
Overall, the event raised almost $1000.
Although the Great Davis Race was scheduled on the same day as Relay for Life, a fundraiser coordinated annually by the American Cancer Society, Heystek said there was still a good turnout for the race.
Team Ducky and Kitty, known to friends as Ariel and Paulie, are two third-year law students who participated in the race.
“An urban challenge race sounded fun. We like scavenger hunts and wanted to try a real one out. Plus it’s a beautiful day today,” they said.
Heystek previously participated in a scavenger hunt in the Bay Area. He noticed the amount of young people participating and decided that since Davis is a university community, there would be a lot of young people willing to participate.
“It was such a unique way to get people to work together in teams for a common goal,” Heystek said. “Some people think Davis is a boring place on the weekends, so I think this was our way of providing another option for fun and philanthropy.”
Heystek said he’s hoping to make the event a regular occurrence.
“I’m excited to plan and hold the Great Davis Race 2012. We already have clues for next year’s race! We hope more people will join us next year for another charitable cause!” Heystek said.
For more information, visit the fundraiser’s website at greatdavisrace.com.
– Claire Tan