DOWNIEVILLE - We had a wonderful turnout for this year's 4th of July annual races for kids of all ages after having to miss the event for two years due to Covid. The weather was amazingly cool for the 4th of July and the crowd was excited and in a great mood to celebrate on Monday watching the parade then moving on to the races.
These amazing events would never happen without all the help from so many volunteers who all work well together. First and foremost, the Downieville Volunteer Fire Department/Fire Auxiliary who sponsor the events and do all the leg work getting the permits, closing and cleaning the streets and manning their excellent barbeque, dance and muster. The Downieville Lion's Club sponsored the parade this year which is loved by all, especially the fireless fireworks spearheaded by Dan and Ingrid. A huge thank you to both these organizations for their hard work! There is a core group who help each year with the kid's races and the two most valuable players in this event are veterans Jack Marshall at the starting line getting the groups organized to race and Pete Villareal who kindly made the trek back here to announce the races. Line judges Lee Adams, Tony McCreary and Ryan Lowery at the finish line made the calls for the winners and at the prize table Randi McCreary and Irma McCreary awarded the winners and participants their prizes. Gordon Bell made sure the tug of war rope was ready and helped with set up, Cora Dittrich manned the hardware store so Cindy and family could handle the races, Mindy Strine graciously loaned us her PA system and Chris Strine loaned us his table for the prizes. Finally, a huge thank you to Jan Hamilton and the Downieville Fireless Fireworks fund that graciously donated to our prize fund for this year's event. We so appreciated all who helped!
This year we had the race participants write their names for the paper and we didn't catch everyone's last name but hopefully you know who you are. Please note categories were dependent upon the number of runners available in each group. Results are as follows:
1 year-old girls: First: Emery Bowman, Second: Adia Powell (8 months with help from dad!)Third: Aurora Wharff
