2011 Echo Lake Road Race

(2011 Photos Below)

19th Annual Echo Lake Road Race August 27, 2011

THANK YOU from the
19th Annual Orleans County Citizen Advocacy
Echo Lake Road Race

We are thankful that Hurricane Irene came on Sunday rather than Saturday as we had beautiful weather for our popular fundraising event. The 157 participants that biked, ran & walked all enjoyed the "calm before the storm". The couple pictured above along with their wedding party came to enjoy the festivities with an energizing 5 mile run before their walk down the aisle. Their identifying stickers said: Dash To The Alter.

Orleans County Citizen Advocacy would sincerely like to thank the 41 businesses the sponsored their logos on our handsome t-shirts, as well as the 35 businesses and individuals that donated prizes to make the event that much more enjoyable. We also had 6 businesses donated food and water to fuel the event goers after their exhilarating go around Echo Lake. None of this though would have been possible without our 35 volunteers – thank you! Everyone added to our being able to raise $6,000 for our program that supports people with developmental disabilities.

We look forward to next year's 20th Annual event on Sat Aug 25, 2012! Hope you can support us again!

14th annual Terry & Ben Claassen Memorial Northeast Kingdom Lakes Century
September 17, 2011

Orleans County Citizen Advocacy’s board of directors, program director, Ellen Bowen, and coordinator, Paula Manzi, want to thank everyone involved in making this year’s bicycle tour a fun, safe, spirited fundraiser that raised over $6,000 for our non-profit. OCCA’s mission is to: build and support one-to-one independent long term relationships between unpaid community members and people with developmental disabilities; to ensure that people with disabilities are protected, heard, empowered, respected and included.

This year’s 65 riders, most who tackled the full 100 mile loop. The cyclists couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the ride! We appreciate their praise about the routes, the food, and the friendliness of the volunteers. After 14 years, many riders feel like old friends, and hopefully we made some new ones as well!

Special thanks to: our $500 sponsors: Shawn Austin Construction & Excavation, The Animal Doctor & Taplin’s. Our $250 sponsors: TD Bank, Concept 2, Columbia Forest Products, Poulin Grain and the Wildflower Inn. Our $100 sponsors: Associated Insurance Agencies, Community National Bank, Rusty’s Electric, Newport Rental Center, Barton Area Chamber of Commerce, Auto Outfitters, Village Bike Shop in Derby, Hayes Ford, H&R Block, Garden Patch, Eastside Restaurant, Green Mountain Electric Supply, Passumpsic Savings Bank, Edward Jones, Gervais Plumbing & Heating, Hoagie’s, Taylor-Moore Agency, Poulin Lumber, Kingdom Construction, Right Wheels, Louis Garneau, Tivoly, Ray’s Electric, Wild Branch Solutions and Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT. Much appreciation to Thomas Lichtenberger and Sean McCarthy of Hold Fast Designs in Hardwick who made our T-shirt happen.

The Newport Rotary Club was our major funder for the BBQ, with a number of other businesses donating food for the dinner & rest stops: C&C Supermarket, Bouyea-Fassetts, Garden Patch, Derby Village Store, Buzzy’s Beverage, Price Chopper, Shaw’s, Vista Foods, Vermont Heritage Spring Water and Circle K in Barton. A special thanks to Ann Creaven for organizing all of our food related needs and to Russ Bowen for his time manning the grill. Our thanks to all the board members & other volunteers for baking the goodies and making other food for the rest stops, also to Cleo’s Catering for the delicious meal.

13 volunteers staffed the rest stops. Thanks to: Joan Alexander, Ann Stannard, Paula Manzi and Chris Wellhoff at Crystal; Sue Ashworth and Debbie Brooks at Lyndonville; Kay Courson at Country Thyme; Ellen Bowen and Crystal Howard at Derby Line; Lisa Farney and Roberta Pheiffer at Island Pond; & Ann Creaven and Susan Guilmette at Willoughby. Many thanks to Vinnie Vanluvender & Carl Ball for all their assistance with packing up at the end. Our appreciation also goes to the providers of the rest stop spaces: The Haskell Library/Opera House, Country Thyme, Town of Willoughby for the use of the Willoughby North Beach and Bruce Grant for the use of the old Sheffield Potato Co. shed.

Thanks to Gerry Cahill and Joan Alexander painted all the directional arrows along the route; VT Transportation Agency and other towns who allowed for the important directional markings so our bikers could easily find their way around; to the on-call mechanics, Earl Whitmore and Jeff Manning; to Jeremy Edwards and Al Marin for updating the website; plus our volunteer treasurer, Steven Mengel, for all his support. We appreciated the support of Crystal State Park Ranger John Corriveau and Brighton State Park Ranger Todd Gregory, as well as the Town of Barton for allowing us to put up our event sign on the village green. The riders especially enjoy Graham Rae & Ellen Apple Rae of Derby Line who provided free massages at the event. Thanks to Cindy Stone, Connie Daigle & Pam Veroot although they could not be there sent food for others to enjoy.

We look forward to next year’s 15th Annual Ride, on the third Saturday in September, 2012.

1st Annual Golf on Ice Challenge

(Photos Below)

OCCA Wants To Thank Everyone Involved Who Helped Make This Event A Success.

Orleans County Citizen Advocacy’s board of directors, Program Director, Ellen Bowen, and Coordinator, Paula Manzi want to thank everyone involved in making this year’s golf challenge tournament a fun, safe, spirited fundraiser that generated funds for our non-profit that builds and supports one-to-one independent long term relationships between unpaid community members and people with developmental disabilities; to ensure that people with disabilities are protected, heard, empowered, respected and included.

This year’s 20 golfers braved snow, wind and an interesting 9 hole golf course at Prouty Beach. Although the event was small this year we plan to grow next year with more sponsors, prizes, food, and an expanded course. Many ideas are in the works! Look for save the date flyers this fall.

Special thanks to Andy Cappello of Newport Parks & Recreation Dept who worked tirelessly despite many setbacks to create the wonderful course we had, and to Steve Dalpe of the North Country Mountaineers for grooming the course on such short notice. Your volunteer support was invaluable, and made the whole event happen. Much appreciation also to Newport Rotary Club, Rusty’s Electric, Robert Taplin Septic Service and Memphremagog Rentals for their supportive hole sponsorships. Included in the list of gratitude on behalf of OCCA is Community National Bank who donated the bright orange golf balls which help the participants find their lost balls in the large amount of surrounding snow. And no OCCA fundraising event would be complete without giving out some prizes. For that we owe recognition to Jay Peak Country Club, Newport Country Club, Orleans Country Club and Barton Golf Club who all gave 4 18 hole green fee passes that were very well received by the winners. We also thank Memphremagog Press and The Front Desk for donating printing material.

OCCA certainly wants to acknowledge our volunteers. Jason Willey & Chris Lyon gave plenty of back labor with their help in digging the holes on the course as well as making pathways from one fairway to the next. This was no small feat given all the snow that needed to be moved. Also volunteering was Sue Engel who took beautiful photographs for us and formatted them into a professional package.

All of these very special people and businesses made the golf event come together and a great success!

We look forward to next year’s 2nd Annual OCCA Golf Challenge.

(Click on Photo to enlarge)