Mud
for Blood – 3, Weather – 0Mud
for Blood – 3, Weather – 0April 8, 2006
Saturday April 8th was the third annual Mud For Blood event hosted by the Georgia Bounty Runners (GBR) of Atlanta Georgia. Again this year, Mother Nature took center stage. Those of you that attended last year remember that we had just about every element of precipitation fall within a 3 hour period: rain, then sleet, then hail, then snow mixed with a lot of wind. This year Mother Nature decided to step it up a notch with tornados in the early morning around 3:00 am.
Mother Nature put on a good show, but she didn’t beat our wonderful 4wd community’s sprit of giving. Last year our community donated 96 pints of blood at the event. Regardless of the weather, we’ve beaten our prior year once again. This year Life South collected 103 pints of blood at Mud For Blood. Sincere thanks to everyone that donated. The best thanks you will receive will be from the recipients of the blood that you will most likely never meet.
 Life South was ready for our volume this year and did a great job. |
 Roadside advertising really works. We had at least 10 donations from people driving by. |
 Bill Durham flexing his rig on 4 Wheel Parts RTI ramp. |
 Gathering for some of the free stuff given out by over 30 sponsors. Thanks again to Northern Tool & Equipment. |
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 Rita Barnhart putting on a brave face while being drained. |
 Life South provided some kids entertainment for those too young to donate. |
Each individual donation can help as many as three different people. The blood is separated into its three major components, red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Each of these components has the potential of saving someone’s life. So this year’s Mud For Blood event has the potential of touching 309 different lives.
This year’s event had more than 30 different sponsors. For an entire list of sponsors, please see our website at: www.gbr4wd.com. These are the sponsors that are really stepping forward to support our sport – please take the time to look and see who supported us – and whenever you get the chance, please support our sponsors in return.
First, we’d like to thank Northern Tool & Equipment in Duluth, GA for inviting us to use their parking lot for this event. Sincere thanks also to Life South for helping make the donation process smoother every year. 4 Wheel Parts donated our Grand Prize for the 2nd year in a row, a Warn 8000lb winch. They also brought their RTI ramp for our entertainment. We would like to thank Emory Dunwoody Medical Center for their continuing support. Toyota Mall of Georgia brought a new FJ Cruiser and Lou Sobh Hummer brought an H1 Alpha and an H3. We would also like to thank Old School Off Road, Southern Jeeps, Solaros, and American Off Road for making sure we had hot food and cold drinks to keep us going throughout the day.
Special thanks go out to Kerry VanderPool for organizing the silent auction again this year. We had donations from quite a few of the area clubs. This part of the event is also growing and getting more fun each year. We are continuing what we started last year. A small portion will be used to maintain the GBR Automatic External Defibrillator. We decided as a club to bring in an AED to enhance our safety during club events. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to the March of Dimes in the memory of Jennifer Scott, who was the wife of Mike Scott, a valued member of Off Camber 4 Wheel Drive. The remainder is being considered to start a formal “Charity” account for our club.
The most important thanks go out to Clint Crites of the Georgia Bounty Runners. Clint is the spearhead of the Mud For Blood event each year. Whenever he is thanked, he will always deflect the credit to others that have helped him put it together. However we all know that doing the actual work is the easy part. Making sure the event happens is the difficult part. Clint, thank you again for assembling a wonderful and life saving event. This is a great example of giving back to our community.
One of the more fun parts of the event, except for those that actually enjoy being stuck by a needle, is the Real World Rig Revue. This year’s Revue was headed by Jay Bird, President of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, and a member of GBR. He solicited members from some of the other clubs to also be judges. The winners this year were: Lowest Ride – Brannon Payne; Most Colors and Largest Windshield Crack – Chuck Holmgreen; Most Dents – Chris Schramm; Most Stickers – Justin Breedlove; Best Dirt – Clint Crites; Best Bumper Sticker – The Life South Bus; Vendors Choice – Bill Durham, and the man that ran away with the show was Kerry VanderPool who won Best Equipped, Best Vanity Tag, Life South Choice, and most impressively, Best in Show.
We had at least 9 different clubs represented. Of the people that registered, the clubs represented were: Georgia Bounty Runners, Off Camber 4wd, Southern Jeeps, Georgia Cruisers, Old School Off Road, Georgia Crawlers, Solaros, Renegade 4wd Club, and American Off Road. We also had at least 10 individuals that were not members of a club that had heard about the event and came to donate.
Thank you to all who donated. I guarantee you will touch someone’s life with your gift.
We will see ya’ll next year!!
Chuck Holmgreen, Past President
Georgia Bounty Runners, Atlanta GA
www.gbr4wd.com
