GREENBRIER — The third annual Greenbrier Mayor’s 107-plus Challenge will wrap up Saturday with the Moustache Dash 5K, as well as new activities, organizers said.
“It’s going to be a big deal,” Mayor Sammy Joe Hartwick said.
The Big Event Spring Fling, the festival to celebrate the end of the challenge to residents to walk 107 miles in four months, is scheduled for Saturday. The festival will include the race, vendor booths, live music, a moustache and beard competition, awards, an American Red Cross blood drive and children’s activities at the Melton Cotton City Event Center, 5 Lois Lane.
Shellie O’Quinn, the event center’s director, said new this year will be a Praise Fest from 5-9 p.m. Friday at the center.
“We’ve never done this before. This is the churches’ idea — they said they want to raise money for the [Greenbrier] Fire Department,” O’Quinn said.
The churches bought the food, and the Greenbrier volunteer firefighters will cook and sell hamburgers and hot dogs Friday and Saturday. All the proceeds will go to the Fire Department to pay for repainting an old ladder truck “that needs a little love,” Hartwick said.
Another fundraiser for the Fire Department will be Paint the Truck, during which attendees can buy cans of spray paint to “got to town on an old vehicle, as long as it’s appropriate,” O’Quinn said. “That will be fun; the kids will love it.”
On Saturday, the second annual Moustache Dash 5K will begin at 9 a.m. A record number of people have registered for the 5K, “and we’re not through registering people; it’s awesome,” Hartwick said.
O’Quinn said about 60 people — twice as many as last year — had signed up for the 5K as of last week.
“But it could be 100; about half our participants last year signed up on-site,” she said. More information and registration are available at www.greenbriergetsfit.com.
Also on Saturday, an American Red Cross blood drive is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ MammoVan is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to provide mammograms for women 40 and older. Insurance companies will be billed, O’Quinn said.
Live music will start at noon and include Sied Swipe, billed as an up-and-coming local band; Route 66; and Kailey Abel of Oklahoma, who made it to the top 100 on American Idol, O’Quinn said.
“She’s very good,” O’Quinn said, adding that Abel has Arkansas ties, and her father is a pastor. Abel will perform Friday night, too.
In addition, a vendor market will include everything from boutiques to a plant booth sponsored by the Faulkner County Urban Farm Project.
O’Quinn said awards will be given to participants in the Mayor’s 107-plus Mile Challenge, including selections for Overachieving Team and Overachieving Individual, as well as a Spirit Award.
Hartwick said, a bit sheepishly, that he has not met the 107-mile goal this year.
“I don’t know if I’m going to make 107, but I’ve been trying — me and my wife both, she works at it harder than I do,” he said.
He and his wife, Cheryl, achieved the goal last year, as do many residents.
“You start listening when Shellie starts announcing the total miles logged, and it’s awesome,” Hartwick said. “Some have logged 500, 600 miles, and you can tell. They’re in shape. You can tell which ones that have really made a difference. It’s been a good deal for them. We’re real proud of it.”
O’Quinn agreed that
the Greenbrier Gets Fit program has made a difference in the lives of residents.
“There are people who’ve come to us and said, ‘I’m glad you’re doing this challenge, and it really motivated me to get out and do it.’ For some people, it was a competitive thing, being on a team. For others, it was just fun to have a little extra push,” she said.
Greenbrier was designated in 2015 as an Emerging Healthy Community by the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention for the city’s Greenbrier Gets Fit program.
“We hope that this festival on the 16th will grow into something bigger from year to year,” O’Quinn said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.