By Ashley Lodato
No sooner does the snow melt than the sneakers come out of the closet, as evidenced by the official beginning of Cascades Outdoor Store’s second annual Lewis Butte Hill-Climb series. The format, which follows the model received with great enthusiasm and much panting last year, is non-competitive. You show up at the Lewis Butte parking area between 4 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. on Wednesdays in April. Brian or Amy Sweet, who own the Winthrop store, will time your run, walk, or hike up and down the butte. You can try to improve on your previous time each week, or not.
All are welcome. It’s free, friendly, and fun, depending on what your definition of “fun” is. And there’s an added bonus for anyone who shows up four out of five times: you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free pair of La Sportiva trail running shoes. Talk to the folks at the store if you want more information.
Things have been pretty exciting in Cathy Oliver’s third-grade class this past week, as students track the progress of the 80 mushers and their teams competing in the 1,000-mile Iditarod, which began in Fairbanks, Alaska (after the ceremonial start in Anchorage). Each of the students in the class adopted four mushers (one veteran, one top-10 finisher, one rookie, and one other, all chosen by random drawing) to follow during the roughly 10-day race and they take their tracking duties very seriously.
With the same keen interest that others among us might check the NASDAQ each morning, the kids visit the Iditarod’s official race results when they get to school and they carefully chart the progress of each of their teams. Scratched entrants are lamented, disqualified racers (yes, there has been one so far) are forgiven, and as the top teams near the final leg of the journey, tensions are becoming heated in the classroom as the students transfer the emotions of racers’ triumphs and defeats to themselves. By the time you read this, the first mushers will have crossed the finish line in Nome.
Also nearing the end of their journey — of a very different type — is the Crandall family, the members of which are set to return from their winter in Cofradia, Mexico, where they have been volunteering for Project Amigo, which uses U.S. volunteer groups to provide access to education and health care to children in rural west-central Mexico. Eight-year-old Linnaea Crandall reports that last week she was on the giving end of many “firsts” for some Mexican children: their first toothbrush, their first book, and their first trip to the beach. And, perhaps, for some of the Project Amigo volunteers: their first feeling of really making a difference.
