Megan, Jamie and Bill regained the championship trophy at last year's NALC Spelling Bee (where the theme was, obviously, pirates).
It's spelling bee time again, and Bill, Jamie and I are gearing up to reprise our roles from last year on Hammock's winning team. The 15th Annual Nashville Area Literacy Council's Spelling Bee takes place Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Nashville Public Library, so if you're in the area stop by to cheer us on!
This year's theme is NASCAR, so I'm guessing we'll see some dueling No. 8 and No. 24 t-shirts—and hopefully some stick-on mustaches, too. But besides planning our costumes, Bill, Jamie and I (ok, mostly I) have some studying to do to ensure the checkered flag is lowered first for us. Because if we win, Jamie has promised to take a victory lap around the library garage.
But I bet we could convince her to do a burnout, too.
Led by the intrepid Barbara Mathieson, who is serving a two-year term on the Metro Nashville Beautification and Environment Commission, a few hardy Team Hammockites trekked to western Davidson County, Tenn., on Saturday to do our part for the Great American Clean Up. In addition to filling piles of garbage bags with fast food debris, bottles, cans, cigarette butts and other gross litter, we also braved the snaky banks of the Harpeth River to properly dispose of a couple of realty signs. (Who hurls signs off a bridge?)
Join us for next year's "Keep Nashville Clean and Beautiful" project--it's a dirty job, but we promise lots of laughs.
Each year between March 1 and May 31, Keep American Beautiful sponsors the Great American Clean Up to encourage community involvement in keeping America Beautiful.
According to the kab.org website:
In 2007, Great American Cleanup volunteers collected 200 million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.
This Saturday, May 17, some of us from Hammock Inc. have volunteered to clean up along McCrory Lane and Charlotte Pike in western Davidson County.
Team Hammock at the Country Music Marathon. [Flickr set]
Team Hammock enjoyed its first try at the Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Saturday morning. The rain cleared in time for the start, and it stayed cool.
We had a blast. We raised a little money, lowered our resting heart rates over the time of training, enjoyed a course-side tent experience (Thanks, Carrie!) and had some fun. We really appreciated our friends who joined us by donating money, running with us or cheering us on.
First of all, thanks to our contributors. You've made great teammates. Thanks to your generosity and to our matches, we are donating $1,600 to four worthy organizations. We will contribute $450 each to the Nashville Adult Literacy Council, Nashville Zoo and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee. We've also made a $250 donation to the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee on behalf of the law firm of Salas & Slocum, who graciously allowed us to set up our tent on their parking lot (and only made us sign a one-page waiver).
Hammock had nine walkers and runners make it across the finish line. We may hold the distinction of the longest-travelling half-marathoner of the day. Patrick Ragsdale, who planned to run the full marathon, was nursing a foot injury that was nagging him all week. Patrick made it to 16, then turned back and finished on the half marathon course. If you're counting, that's a 23-mile run. And yes, Patrick is on crutches today.
Our Team Hammock race tent was a welcome sight near mile 8 on the course. Those were our handsome red balloons flying over Music Row. Next year, look for the Hammock blimp.
A 'rex-cam' view of the race.
Rex took the time to capture the experience of running in this phenomenal event with his hand-held high-def video camera. Check it out here. More than 30,000 people were registered participants, and it seems like half of Nashville turned out to cheer on the runners. The energy of the whole day makes me proud to have this great an event in my adopted hometown. I've been a participant in other major races around the country. I'm not sure there is a better one than ours.
Stay tuned to other Team Hammock events. I'll blog more about what we're doing next. We're committed to more than just running. We're trying to integrate our work and our passions with our work in utilizing all the tools of social media to reach goals. Let us know how Team Hammock can work for you.
Later: Thanks to Lynne Boyer for shooting some video of the Team Hammock Spirit Squad.
If you don't mind getting dizzy watching Rex's random camera-work, you can sense how much fun Team Hammock is having preparing for its first big event in this video from the Country Music Marathon Expo:
