---

Turtle race champion

This week’s Grand Champion was 3 year old Hudson Zahorak from Elmhurst, IL. 

   Yesterday, I had a number of families thank us for putting on the turtle races. Actually, one of them was the family of our Grand Champion, 3 year old Hudson Zahorak. They were all just grinning from ear to ear with their thankfulness. Dad shared that he too had been a winner as a child! And, same goes for the Duin family. As youngsters they raced, now as adults they are back at it. There you go.

   You just can’t get away from how much the experience of coming to the turtle races means to people. When all of us who help put it on are getting dressed on Wednesday morning, we’re like ...here we go again. On our drive into town, we might be thinking...here we go again. BUT, once we meander over to main street where they have just barricaded the street and our Y (young men from our partners, the YMCA) guys are starting to put everything in place, we start to catch the fever. 

Resort race winner...

4 year old Lainey Carlton and her 2 year old sister, Harper from Lake Leelanau, MI walked away with the big W this week representing Little Boy Resort. Photos submitted.

   Some of our guests are already getting into the line to buy their tickets...the line that will soon stretch at least to the post office. Paul cranks the music up and the party starts. Our yellow shirted volunteers start to arrive and set up their games. And, bless their hearts...here it is the 7th race day and they are just as perky as they were on the first race day. Every single one of them has a smile on and is enthusiastically ready to help the little kiddos win coins. So they can go to the prize table and claim their booty from all those fabulous gifts just waiting there for them.

   Whoever dreamed this up? It’s all so serendipity...right out of a story book! I tell you, yesterday we had about 450 racers. That’s a crowd of almost 2000 people on main street, ages from  90 to tiny babies. Nobody is cranky, everyone is happy! Yesterday especially, the crowd was extremely energetic. All of us volunteers agreed that whether we were running a game, working at the prize table or judging turtle races...this crowd was taking no hostages. They were a wild and crazy fun bunch! 

Slow Poke champion

This week’s Grand Slowpoke Winner was 17 year old Kaydi Zoske from Eldora, IA. 

   So, for 10 weeks of races during the summertime in Longville, the world is in harmony. These races are a big part of fond memories that people carry around for their whole lives. Let’s all cherish them for the happiness they bring.

---