The Times vs. B-93

We accepted the challenge from the Fort Frances Public Library to enter their fundraising car rally for the “Building for the Future Campaign” held last week. B-93 fm, the other media outlet in town, also signed-up for the Library’s challenge. In order to hype up the event, we decided to go head-to-head in a little friendly competition. The wager on the line—If we were to beat B-93, we would go on the morning show with Jenni Condon and Mike Alan. And if they beat us, they’d get their photo in the paper. This is how the challenge played out . . .
All 17 teams gathered at the Library just before 7 p.m., but we only had our eyes set on our rivals B-93. Since the quest had been heighten prior to the event, we were eager and ready to “bring it on.”
Teams began with their first clue one at a time, until there were just three left—our team and B-93’s two teams. (They thought they’d split up to give them a better chance at winning). I guess they felt threatened by us Times girls.
With the rest of the editorial staff unavailable, we recruited the help of bookkeeper Sue Martin and Tanya Cumming from commercial printing sales. Meanwhile, B-93’s first team consisted of morning show hosts Jenni Condon and Mike Alan, along with script writer Dani Falk. And sales rep Jay Desrosiers, with radio personalities “Gilmore” and Sarah Marusyk made up the “Redneck” team.
We put on our Sherlock Holmes detective hats and started out ahead of the remaining two teams.
We quickly decoded the first clue in the Library (thanks to Tanya) by locating the right book and received our next hint which took us all the way out to Kitchen Creek Golf Club.
Once there, one team member had to try their luck at a hole-in-one and it was Amanda who stepped up to the plate, sinking the ball in just five tries.
We raced back to the Times mini-van, clue number three in hand, and sailed off down the highway towards town.
But we couldn’t avoid our first obstacle—a long train delay. While disappointed with the time we were losing, we were confident the B-93 teams were also delayed on the other side of the train.
Our next task took us to Global Gaming located on Scott Street where we had to accomplish three trips around a virtual race track before collecting our next clue.
Heather took the wheel, but needed a little help with the gear shifting from Tanya. Eventually, after crashing into a few walls and a lot of giggling, we managed to complete the laps. (Sorry to the patrons who thought we were too loud!)
To our surprise, as we ran out the doors at Global Gaming, we spotted our competition racing down the road. Somehow the “Redneck” team had forged ahead of the first B-93 team and were now right on our tail.
Next, we were off to the Causeway for a quick history lesson, where we helped Sue fill in the blanks.
Then we headed across town once again (trying to stay within the speed limit) for a physical activity at Energy Fitness.
Amanda maxed out the speed of the treadmill in order to compete a lap and gain the next clue, as Tanya worried she’d fly off the piece of equipment.
At this point, we knew both B-93 teams were right behind us as we passed them on our way out.
Knowing the challenge was nearing its end, we tried to step up our game with speed, but the cops were out in full force.
Our second-to-last clue took us to the Eighth Street ski-trails where we collected several items from the forest. The B-93 teams were hot on our trail (but at least we knew what a fern was!).
However, in all the chaos we jumped in the car and headed down the road, not realizing we had missed getting the final clue.
Luckily we discovered soon enough and turned around, but we had lost our lead.
Finally we had the last clue, which had us racing to La Place Rendez-Vous.
We took a sneaky shortcut avoiding a red light that had stopped B-93 in their tracks, so we got to our final destination ahead of our competition. But since the winners were based on time, and they had started after us, we unfortunately lost the challenge.
Where did it go wrong, you ask? Let’s just say, we weren’t the speed demons like B-93 (We’re surprised they didn’t get a speeding ticket).
So, congratulations to the “Redneck” team on their win. We had a lot of fun and will really be ready to bring it next year!