TREMONT, Pa.—Most Jeep wheeling events start off with some sort of driver meeting. You know how it goes. Get the whole crowd together for a 'here are the rules of the road' kind of thing. A 'don't be stupid out there because most of you have to drive your Jeeps home later' type of deal. But last weekend at Rausch Creek Offroad Park in Tremont, Pennsylvania, Chantelle Kern stood up in front of hundreds and kicked off the 11th annual Topless For Tatas Wheeling Event with something entirely more important.
A set of numbers.
Specifically, three of them—11, 269 and 5388. Taken from left to right it means 11 years of hosting the Topless for Tatas event, $269 thousand dollars-plus raised towards breast cancer research, and 5388 hours worth of research generated from that money. All to fight this horrific disease.
These are numbers not lost on Kern, nor the vast crowd assembled before her which applauded enthusiastically as each was announced; no doubt many of whom touched in some way by the very disease they are donating to fight.
"The only way we are able to do that is for you guys coming out to our events and supporting us," Kern, founder of Topless for Tatas, said to the crowd Saturday morning.
Topless for Tatas has been holding its annual event exclusively at Rausch Creek since 2009, and the whole thing has grown from the inaugural one day session with a few dozen attendees, to the now three-day weekend with a vendor day and hundreds of participants. All drivers are able to choose their trail groups right during the registration process, which allows everyone to find a group and difficulty level they are comfortable with for the event. Additionally, all trail guides and event staff are volunteers. This allows Topless for Tatas the ability to give event proceeds straight to breast cancer research.
"Everyone who has a trail guide shirt on, a staff shirt on, is 100 percent volunteer,' Kern said. "No one in this organization makes a dime. That's how we are able to donate all that money."
Rausch Creek holds numerous events during the year at its 3,000 acre off-road complex located between Tremont and Tower Hill, Pennsylvania. And its more than 60 miles of trails for all skill levels makes it the perfect location for the Topless for Tatas crowd.
"It was a beautiful weekend to be out wheeling and supporting this great cause," said Rausch Creek General Manager Bernie Gardula. "For the event we had all different types of vehicles, and we even had a few Gladiators out on the trails. Rausch Creek always loves seeing all the people that come together to support such a great cause. There was fun around the campfire, out on the trails and we can not forget about the awesome raffle. Thank you from Rausch Creek to everyone that came out and had fun."
—Matt Konkle
Quadratec Channel Editor
