FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:PDF

Valdosta, May 15th, 2015 — Three sponsors have signed up for the third annual BIG Little River Paddle Race on Saturday, May 16, 2015: Tifton Rotary Club, Cook Medical Center, and Bret Wagenhorst, MD. You can register at the event tomorrow morning. Last year also saw paddlers from as away as New York and Pennsylvania and even a couple from Germany. Come have a grand time paddling with friends, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters.

Bring your canoe or kayak or rent one at Reed Bingham State Park for this fundraiser for Friends of Reed Bingham State Park and WWALS Watershed Coalition. The course runs three miles or 1.5 to 2 hours down the scenic winding Little River from Red Roberts Landing at the north end of the park to the park boat ramp on the Colquitt side of the lake. Race or paddle at your leisure through the lovely south Georgia scenery of cypress, tupelo, palmettos, pine trees and live oaks and the glimpses of wildlife such as egrets, coots, wood ducks, herons, buzzards, and an occasional bald eagle, gar, or alligator.

Event registration is 8-9AM and mass start is at 9:30 AM, both at Red Roberts landing. That’s I-75 exit 41, then immediately turn in front of Horse Creek Winery, and follow Rountree Bridge road about 4.8 miles to the landing on the left just before bridge. Registration is $30 per boat, plus a $5 per vehicle park entrance fee. Participants will unload their boats at the start, drive their vehicles to the finish point in the park and then catch a shuttle back to the start. Canoes and kayaks may be rented from the park while supplies last for a separate fee, and reservations are recommended. All paddlers must have a life jacket and know how to swim. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Medals for the top finishers will be given out about 11:30 AM over a free lunch, in categories including: men’s two person canoe, women’s two person canoe, mixed two person canoe, men’s tandem kayak, women’s tandem kayak, mixed tandem kayak, men’s solo kayak, women’s solo kayak, men’s solo canoe, and women’s solo canoe.

About FORB and WWALS:

Proceeds from the event benefit the Friends of Reed Bingham (FORB) and also WWALS Watershed Coalition. FORB is an all-volunteer organization which helps to fund projects in the park, such as the island campsite and the putt-putt golf course. WWALS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization with board members in Lowndes, Berrien, and Tift Counties, Georgia and Hamilton County, Florida which advocates for watershed conservation of the Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River systems in south Georgia and north Florida through awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen advocacy.

Contact:

For more information go to www.wwals.net, call 229-392-5513, or stop by the park office.

###

Short Link: