A New Twist for BFLO O-club’s Premier Event—Here Come the Kids!
This marks the twelfth year that our club has put on its version of a mini-Rogaine. A Rogaine, a Rugged Outdoor Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance, usually takes place over a 6, 12, or 24-hour period. Buffalo’s version is “mini” because we don’t offer the 24-hour format.
From 2004 through 2008, our event headquarters was at the CCC Camp near Little Rock City. From 2009 through 2011 we shifted to the Ski Patrol Training Lodge at Holiday Valley, and it remains our headquarters to this day. The facilities at this venue allow us to host a more elabo- rate event with an indoor setting for socializing with food after the event.
In 2012 we made two big changes: we changed the name of the event to the Ellicottville Ad- venture Run to attract a wider range of competitors, and we used our new map! We had former- ly used a non-orienteering quality map created by the Western New York Mountain Bike Asso- ciation. Now we have a real orienteering map where the field work was done by Valentin Vla- dimirov.
Last year a group of middle school students from St. Greg’s in Williamsville were motivated by one of their teachers to participate in the event even though it is designed for more experienced orienteers. This year, in order to accommodate the middle school group, we established a 2- hour beginner course along with the traditional 3-hour and 6-hour courses. And we changed the pricing structure for beginners to make it more suitable for children.
Over 100 middle schoolers showed up!
This year the combined total of participants was 135, a new attendance record. The glorious sunny weather this year might also have influ- enced people to come spend a beautiful day in the woods.
The event is held at Holiday Valley because it is our largest mapped area. Because of the number of controls that need to be placed over a vast area, the event is a very demanding event to put on as well as to participate in.
The course setters, course vetters, and control placers have to travel the relatively long dis- tance from Buffalo to Ellicottville several times, and have to spend hours and hours in the woods to prepare the long Score-O format courses. Jackie Novkov has been the prime mover of this event since its inception. This year Dave Levine also took on a huge role in the technical aspects creating of the course, as- sisted by Dave Cady, Phil Wolfling, Doug Kennedy, and Walt and Patty Lyons.
The need to feed people after their three to six hours of intense exercise adds another layer of complication and the need for more volunteers. Jennifer Borowicz brought hot dogs, chips, cookies, bananas, and apples. Linc Blaisdell, Phil Wolfling, and Tom Rycroft all made chili for the event. Lynda Chudy and Rod and Laura Cameron did lots of work in setting out the food, while Phil was the main hot dog chef. The groups ate in shifts; the beginners course people from 2 to 3, the 3-hour people from 4 to 5, and the 6-hour people from 5 to 6.
Greg Hyatt’s pre-registration program got most of the experienced orienteers signed up by a week before the event. Some of the middle school kids signed up in advance, but 70 stu- dents appeared on the day of the event. Linc along with Katy Carrier were kept busy by the deluge of bodies that poured in. Doug Kennedy also had his hands full getting everyone into the computer and handing out the “dibblers,” the scoring finger sticks. The event came to its conclusion as Jackie Novkov presented awards to the top finishers.
Thanks to everyone for a great event!