Are you ready to ramble?

A 1-3K walk will be held Nov. 6 at Georgia College & State University to generate funds for a new scholarship for Baldwin County students.

The Bobcat Ramble 1-3K walk will begin at 8 a.m., and will start at the Wellness Depot, circle around the block of main campus, go by the Old Governor’s Mansion and return to the Wellness Depot. A one-mile alternate course will also be provided for those who wish to take a shorter route.

This first year is going to be a “spirit walk”.

“We would like to see folks dressed in school colors, carrying banners and just having a good time,” Joe Bellflower, director of the Wellness Depot and coordinator for the even said.

Bellflower is hoping for participation from the campus community as well as local residents and visiting parents, since the event is being held on the same day as Parent’s Day.

“We are challenging our students, faculty and staff to participate,” Bellflower said.

A variety of prizes will be given to those with the best banner, the most spirit and the largest team. Refreshments and entertainment will follow the event, as well as door prizes and t-shirts for all the participants.

The entry fee this year will be $12 if walking as an individual, and $10 if walking as a member of a team.

The entry fees for the Bobcat Ramble will be assigned to an endowment and, over time, they will provide a full scholarship to a Baldwin County student, according to Bellflower. The endowment will be established through the GC&SU Foundation under the name of the scholarship, and interest is earned over time.

“As the event grows, so will the scholarship fund,” Bellflower said.

To be eligible for the scholarship, the student must be a graduate of a Baldwin County high school, enrolled as an undergraduate student at GC&SU and meet specific academic requirements, according to Dr. Dorothy Leland, president of GC&SU.

This event has come as good news for students from Baldwin County.

“College students need money. This scholarship would help out me and my family,” freshman Brooks Vinson said. “It also gives an incentive for more Baldwin County students to go here. I know a lot of them didn’t come because freshmen were required to live in the dorms and it was too expensive.”

Bellflower said students could start benefiting from the “Ramble” as soon as next year.

“I would hope within a year of the event students could begin to see some of the effects,” he said. The scholarship may only be able to provide things like textbooks at first, until the interest earned on the endowment can provide the students with a full scholarship. “All depends on the success of this and future ‘Rambles’,” Bellflower said.

Leland says that GC&SU plans to make Bobcat Ramble a mainstay for the university.

“We see this as an annual event so that the scholarship fund can grow over time,” Leland said. “The point of the event is to have fun and raise some money.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 29 2004. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry