Thanks to Everyone for Making the Flint River 500 Such a Huge Success!
The Flint River 500 was a great event for the Flint River Watershed Coalition. Taking place over the weekend in late September of 2009, the FR500 represented a winning combination of board comitment, volunteer involvement, community participation and lots of fun!
Brent Nickola, a Board member of the FRWC, developed the idea of stranding himself on the river until the membership goal of 500 members was reached. Starting out at 244, the FRWC had a daunting task ahead of them. At 5:00 on Friday night, September 25, Brent started his camp-out on the river over the entire weekend, while the festivities on shore took place. All the while, membership was growing….
Activities over the course of the three days included a free fish fry, fishing demonstrations, canoe rides, minnow races, a tire round up, a screening of the movie ‘Finding Nemo’, guided walks and raffles. There were numerous ways for the FR500 participants to learn about the watershed and to discover ways that they could become involved in our programs. Everyone marveled in the ways they could have fun on the river that they never knew existed. All the while, Brent stayed on the water and the membership continued to grow…
Finally, at 3:00 in the afternoon on Sunday, September 27th, the last canoe came out of the water, the 77th tire was piled up for proper disposal, Nemo was found, and the last minnow had run her race. We recorded our 509th membership, and let Brent come off the river!
We at the FRWC can’t begin to thank everyone enough for their wonderful and much appreciated support.
Thanks to you, Brent’s time on the raft, enduring dipping night time temperatures of 40 degrees, wasn’t for naught. By the end of the weekend, we had surpassed our goal by reaching 509 members!
