Crab Races Prosper in New Location

On Saturday, November 1 the Manchester Community Schools Foundation held its annual crab races. Since 2011, the foundation has awarded over $60,000 in mini grants for materials and projects to the district’s schools where otherwise funding would not be available. One of the foundation’s most recent grants was a $10,000 award toward the Klager Read Well reading program.

This year was the first year the races were held in Freedom Township Hall after several years at the Manchester Sportsman Club. Prior to that, they were held at Manchester High School in the commons area. The success of the Foundation’s  annual Trivia Night at the Freedom Township Hall earlier this year prompted members to give the location a try for this event.

The Foundation anticipated that as the new venue is smaller it would draw more attention to the race table activity while still comfortably accommodating the attendees. They anticipated that the lower ceiling would improve acoustics, but hadn’t anticipated the positive impact of the temperature at the new location. Theresa Herron, Foundation trustee, said “The new venue worked well. Other Foundation members and I were talking about how lively the crabs were, and we think it may have been due to how overall the room was much warmer. We had a great time.”

While final statistics and the list of winners is still forthcoming, Foundation trustee Shea Shultz Van Vuuren told The Mirror that the Foundation ordered 125 crabs to begin with and that Sarah Corwin and her crab, Nacho Libre, won first place TWICE. Another big winner Saturday evening was Leah Helquist (pictured below with her prize). “I had a great time and I picked a pretty good crab,” Leah said. Her mother, Julie Helquist, added “It was a really fun family night. It is always nice to have a good time and know that the money you spend is going back into the schools!”

UPDATE (Nov. 3, 2014 11:55am): The winners list has been released!

There were 3 rounds of winners
1st Heat winners
1- Leah Helquist
2- Sarah Corwin
3- Rhett Fry
2nd Heat winners
1-Andrew Corwin
2-Sarah Corwin
3-Nick Marsh
3rd Heat winners
1-Sarah Corwin
2-Megan Reppert
3-Garrett Corwin

Prize money was 1 place $100, 2 place $50, 3 place $25. There were 15 racers per race, 5 races per hour, (3 hours the event lasted) 1 winners circle per hour. The final amount raised has not been calculated yet but all money raised is put back into the community.

Leah Helquist holds up her prize money and her winning crab. Photo courtesy of Julie Helquist.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.