By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Members of the Amazing Race teams took a step back in time Saturday during the fundraiser for First Call for Help.
Seven teams raced through Hays Saturday completing challenges for the fundraiser.
One of the challenges included interviewing residents at the Homestead Assisted Living Center.
Virgil Howe, 86, shared pieces of his life with the racers.
He grew up on a farm in northwest Missouri near St. Joseph. He always had an interest in animals. However, his parents determined because of his health, he would attend college instead of working on the farm. He ultimately studied plant pathology.
He said the person who had the most impact on his life was Dr. Irene Mueller at Iowa State University.
He had just come back from the service. He had been studying pre-med, but after serving as a hospital corpsman, he decided that was not the way he wanted to go.
“This lady made plants living things to me,” he said.
The racers asked Howe what he liked to do in high school.
“Do you really want to ask me that?” he said. “I still had to work on the farm, but at night there were some very pretty girls I liked to keep the company of and there was some guys that I would get together with on Saturday and Sunday night. Occasionally, I would like to read. I read most of my life.”
He said his favorite gift was when his granddaughter made him a great-grandfather on Christmas Eve.
“How could you have anything better than that?” he said.
When he was about 12 or 13, he wanted a BB gun in the worst way. He opened up all his gifts at Christmas and he had socks and jeans.
“I tried to act like that was fine,” he said.
When he went to put on the pants, his father had slid the BB gun inside the leg of the jeans.
Howe said his favorite president was fellow Missouri native Harry Truman.
“I thought he made momentous decisions and he accepted the responsibilities for them,” he said. “And then I always admired him as an ex-president. When people tried to hire him for things he was not qualified, he would always say, ‘You don’t want me. You want the president, and the president is not for sale.’
“I always thought he was a wise man even though he was defiled and criticized and poked fun at.”
He said he also admired Eisenhower and was able to meet his grandson.
Howe said the happiest day of his life was when his daughter was born, but he it was also one of the longest days of his life.
His wife went into labor in the early hours of the morning, and Howe took her to the hospital. The staff at the hospital sent him home and said someone would call him when the baby was born.
At 6 that evening, he still hadn’t received a phone call. He went back to the hospital, and the nurse said he thought his wife had given birth that afternoon.
“I was a basket case,” he said.
He went to the hospital and saw his wife. She said they had a daughter.
He went to the nursery and recognized his daughter immediately based on her light-colored hair, just like his.
Another team interviewed Vera Storer, 83.
Store grew up in Garnett, Kansas, on a farm.
She said her favorite subject in school was biology. She went on to become a nurse.
She said she enjoyed going to basketball games when she was in high school. The FHSU students on the team asked her if she played basketball, and the Store explained her school did not have girls basketball when she went to school. The girls played for fun over the noon hour, but only half court.
She said her favorite gift was her wedding ring.
She said her mother had the most impact on her life. She raised six children mostly by herself because her husband was away working in the oil fields. The family did not have much money.
“She was a strong person,” Storer said.
President George HW Bush was her favorite president.
She said the happiest days of her life was when she got married and when she graduated from nursing school.
Storer, who has four children, said if she could have done anything differently, she would have enjoyed life, taken more trips and played with her kids more.
“I was a nurse. I was working. My husband was a teacher. We were busy, busy, busy,” she said.
Other challenges included throwing darts, counting money at Sunflower Bank, tasting popcorn at Popt, putting at Precision Valley Golf, stacking a pallet of cookies at the Girl Scouts of the Kansas Heartland office, identifying juice flavors at Otter Juice Company, gathering numbered duck from a hot tub at Pools Plus, shopping for school supplies at Walmart for the First Call for Help Backpack for Kids program, packing food boxes at St. Joe’s Food Pantry, gathering food for the First Call food pantry and packing a saddle bag at Doerfler’s Harley Davidson.
Teams included the Krazy Kiwanis Springer Style, Teddy Bears from the Kansas Highway Patrol, Circle K. International, Alpha Gamma Delta, People Be Crazy, Courage Caring Hearts and Alpha Sigma Alpha.
The Kiwanis were honored as the top fundraisers. Team members included Chris Springer, Ashley Springer, Jonathan Springer and Michele Springer.
The Hays Kiwanis Club donated $1,500 toward the Race, which sponsored four teams: Krazy Kiwanis Springer Style, The Circle K International Racers and two FHSU sororities: Alpha Gamma Delta and the Alpha Sigma Alpha Team.
Best costume/uniform went toPeople Be Crazy . Members on that team were Cassy Zeigler, Olavee Raub, Jamie Wolbert and Jen Schield. The team was sponsored by Raub & Zeigler LLC in Ellis.
Quickest time was People Be Crazy.
All the money raised will go toward First Call for Help’s rent and utility assistance program.
“Thanks also to the numerous volunteers who helped make this Race a success,” Laura Shoaff of First Call for Help said. “We would like to extend a huge thank you to the business locations listed below, who hosted a challenge this year and donated $25 or more to First Call For Help. Thanks also to the community members who donated food to the racers during our ‘Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood mini food drive challenge’ to benefit our First Call For Help food pantry. Thank you so much to all the businesses who also donated prizes to be handed out to the contestants and volunteers following the Race.”
For more information on First Call for Help, see its website.