Gilbert, MN - The first annual Crawl 4 the Cure was held over the July 4^th weekend.  HTR 4x4 (HTR) and Twin City Off Road (TCOR) are proud to announce that the event was a huge success.  Over $21,000 was raised for the Minnesota Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Seventy ORVs attended the event at the Iron Range Off Highway Vehicle Recreation Area (IROHVRA) in Gilbert, MN.

HTR 4x4 and TCOR both wanted to host an event that would positively impact the 4 wheeling community.  There was also a great potential to draw people to Minnesota, particularly the Iron Range, to showcase the IROHVRA.  It was decided that a charity event was a great way to accomplish this while helping out a great cause.  The MS Society was chosen, because like most people, both clubs have close family and friends affected by the disease.  Every week nearly 200 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with MS.

Registration was open to any 4-wheel drive vehicle; participants were made up of everything from stock vehicles to completely custom tube buggies.  The event consisted of two days of guided trail rides, a banquet dinner and a raffle for some great door prizes all donated by generous companies.  To attend, registrants were asked to raise a $250 minimum “entrance fee” in the form of donations from friends, family and co-workers.

The event didn’t go on without some last minute challenges.  The state was in a budget crisis and the IROHVRA was scheduled to be closed 2 days prior to the event due to lack of funding.  After numerous phone calls, voice messages and news watching word came that the event would go on as planned.  The legislature had managed to pass a bill that provided the funding needed to keep the park open.  Despite this initial roadblock the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch.

The event began on Friday, July 1^st with registration and tech inspections.  Everyone showed up very enthusiastic with smiles on their faces.  The number of out-of-state participants and the distances they traveled to be there surprised many people.  There were three drivers from Illinois, two from Maryland, one from Louisiana and five from Wisconsin that joined the rest from all over Minnesota. 

Once a driver was registered and received their welcome bag, full of donated goodies, they could sign up for trail rides.  There were numerous trail rides scheduled for Saturday that ranged from beginner to expert.  Beginner drivers also had the option of taking a free orientation class offered by Mark Filonowich of Iron Range Off Road.

On Saturday morning, July 2^nd, the impressive array of trail rigs lined up.   With volunteers from TCOR and HTR leading the way everyone got started on their day of trail riding.  A C4C vehicle drove on every trail in the 1,200-acre park.  The highly diverse levels of difficulty in the trail system provided a perfect match to the diversity of the participants.  While some groups took scenic rides on the core trails and tested their newly learned skills others headed for the extremely technical rock crawling areas and trails.  One group even staged an impromptu competition, solely for bragging rights, that only succeeded in putting a couple rigs out of commission for the day.

After returning to camp sites and hotel rooms for quick showers and a change of clothes attendees assembled for the banquet dinner at the Days Inn of Eveleth.  Once seated and with plates full of food John Johnson made a quick speech and introduced some members of the MS Society that attended the event. Two women suffering from MS had actually spent the entire day on the trails with C4C drivers.

At the banquet participants were surprised with a presentation of awards.  The “Hope Award” was given to Phil Miesner for raising the greatest amount of donations.  He collected $1,400.  The “Sportsman of the Year” was awarded to Mark Donavan after he ruined two of his tires and then showed up a couple hours later, ready to finish his trail ride with 4 new tires on his Jeep, all while wearing a smile.  The “Best Engineered Vehicle” was given to Jason Powers for his homebuilt TJ.  Finally, Tim Eidem earned “Worst Broke” after he was forced to abandon his Jeep on the trail Saturday night only to fix it Sunday morning and break again 20 feet down the trail.

A raffle, the most anticipated part of the night, was also held following the awards.  Each participant was given one raffle ticket for their initial $250 of donations and one ticket for each $10 above that.  There was an estimated $8,000 of prized donated by various companies from all over the country.  The raffle culminated with the grand prize, a set of 37” BFG Krawlers, donated by Velocity Motorsports.  After all the losers recovered from missing out on the tires they signed up for Sunday trail rides, concluding Saturday’s schedule.

Sunday brought some small rain showers, which seemed to thin out the crowd but there were still plenty of people left for trail rides.  The day ended earlier than Saturday and was comparatively uneventful but everyone had a great time regardless.  While packing up and saying good-bye to friends, new and old, you could hear plans already being made for next years Crawl 4 the Cure.

HTR 4x4 and Twin City Off Road would like to thank all the participants, sponsors and DNR employees that made the event possible.  A big thanks also goes to the City of Gilbert who was very gracious, even inviting representatives from the event to participate in their 3^rd of July Parade.  In a time when our sport is being overrun with negative publicity it is great to see such a large group of people come together and help a cause like the MS Society.  It was an event we can all be proud of.  HTR and TCOR hope to see you all in 2006.