Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl will give 80 cars the go-ahead on Court Street this summer when Rally North America makes it’s second-day stop in uptown Athens, heading around 1,500 miles west.
“I want to see as many people downtown as possible at each finish line,” Scott Spielman, President of Rally North America, said. “Athens has been outstanding. The attitude of the people we have been working with is incredible and exactly what we look for — we can tell when people want us there.”
Rally North America is a non-profit organization that arranges a summer scavenger hunt and “race” across America, benefiting a specific cause yearly. Donations this year will go to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis.
The Rally will host 80 teams, each with one to two members, across a five-day trip following US route 50. It will make its stop in Athens on Tuesday, July 8. So far, 73 teams have signed up and registration is still open online.
“(The) Rally looks for historic towns,” Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said. “Our town provides that charm and exposure.”
The race will begin in Martinsburg, W. Va., and hit Athens, Bedford, Ind.; Jefferson City, Mo.; Dodge City, Kan.; and end in Pueblo, Colo.
Registration costs $500, $100 of which goes directly toward the Accelerated Cure Project. Donations can be made outside of registration as well. The Rally has already raised $30,000 this year.
It also benefited the Accelerated Cure Project in 2012, raising $64,000, Spielman said. He said he expects to either meet or beat that goal this year, adding that he’s already ahead of what he usually raises.
“We’re really small,” Karen Crumback, director of development for the Accelerated Cure Project, said. “We’re the only organization that does what we do. We’re trying to pull any of our constituents that live in a 50 mile radius to try and get the word out so they can partner with us and go to the race.”
Spielman said that the project’s smaller size was part of the Rally’s decision to donate to them.
“We’re always looking for what we can make better,” Spielman said. “We donate to a lot of four-star charities, but we don’t want to work with the big ones that only give 25 percent of the donations to the cause because they cost so much to run.”
Aside from being charitable, Spielman said riders sign up for the fun that comes with the rally. Drivers will be sent to a variety of “stops” along Route 50 in order to complete the drive, and will be asked to take photos to prove they were there, hence the “scavenger hunt.”
“There’s a lot of emotion in what we do,” Spielman said. “This year will be even better because it’s our fifth-year anniversary – we’ve raised $250,000 since we began. It’s been a really awesome thing.”
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Fast Facts
Of the 73 teams that have signed up, some have given their teams some colorful names. Here are just a few with their cars:
- Team Chillin,
09 Dodge Challenger SRT-8
- Team ADHD...Wait what?,
2014 Audi A6
- Team Red Beard,
06 Pontiac GTO
- Team NoWhore Left Behind,
2008 Subaru Forester
- Team Angry Goat,
2006 Pontiac GTO
- Team Euro Trash,
2001 Qvale Magusta
