Dashing through town for a cause
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The only thing pilots, ninjas, and pterodactyls had in common on Sunday was their grocery list: peanut butter, tuna fish, a box of pasta, a can of veggies, and toilet paper.
Nineteen people, some of them in costume, zoomed around Iowa City on bicycles as part of the University of Iowa Cycling Club’s inaugural Monster Mash Grocery Dash. All proceeds will go to Table to Table, a local non-profit organization that distributes food to agencies that serve hungry, homeless and at-risk populations.
“I think it’s a great cause for Table To Table,” said Iowa City resident and UI Foundation employee Jennifer Wyatt. “I love Halloween, and if I can do Halloween on my bike, it’s even better.”
Wyatt, 38, was dressed in a red shiny devil mask, cape, and flame socks, as part of her costume named “Hell on Wheels.”
Organizers required participants to visit five local grocery stores and purchase one of five items from each store, which were selected from a list supplied by Table to Table. After grabbing all five items, they raced back to the starting point. The route was up to them.
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“I didn’t really have a rationale for the things I was getting at what places,” said Finn Kolsrud, 26, who won the event in 33 minutes. “Whatever I saw first that I didn’t have, I grabbed it and ran to the counter.”
The final tally was $226.48 in food and toilet paper that will be donated. Table to Table officials said they are excited about receiving the donations.
“It is a lot of fun, and it’s creative,” said Bob Andrlik, the group’s executive director. “When you couple it with doing something good, it adds an additional dimension where people feel good at the end of the event.”
Organizers of the zany fundraiser said they are pleased with the first year.
“I thought it went really well,” said UI senior Jake Kuperman, a co-organizer of the Grocery Dash. “The turnout was great.”
And while the event was raising goods for people in need, he said, he wanted to keep the race fun and light-hearted.
“We wanted something challenging, as far as the toilet paper goes, and also something comedic,” he said. “It is not easy to bike with one arm, especially when that other arm is holding four things of toilet paper.”
Prizes came in the form of gift cards and medallions — made from old bike parts — for the top finishers, but even those who didn’t place sai they felt the experience was beneficial.
“It is a great lesson to teach the kids that not everyone is as fortunate as we are,” said Iowa City resident Wanda Berg, 35, who dressed as a ninja.
She participated with her two sons — Jenson, 3, and Holden, 5 — who were dressed as Spiderman and a space man, respectively.
As groups of bikers suddenly rushed into local grocery stores, hurrying to buy only one item before jumping back on their bikes, some of the store employees said they were shocked.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” said Sarah Danley, 23, an employee at Bread Garden Market, 225 S. Linn St. “They started to run up to the register, I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ ”
And while the event’s turnout was slightly lower then some organizers had hoped for, they said a future Monster Mash Grocery Dash is in the works.
“This is great,” Kuperman said. “The question is semiannually or annually.”
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