Millards Mudders “Sore But Pumped!”

Traversing two containers filled with numbing ice water, balancing precariously above a mud pit, climbing ropes to scale a massive wall and taking an inner-tube crawl across a pond.

Along with 35 other teams and approximately 600 participants, the Millards Mudders endured it all, raising money and supporting important local causes.

The Southern Cross Equestrian Farm, located just outside Burford, was host to the Sunrise Rotary Roughneck Mud Run on June 4th. Owners of the farm, Brenda and Dean Gough launched the event three years ago.

This year the Rotary Club of Brantford-Sunrise came on as a partner to support Rotarian causes like the Alzheimer Society, Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the Adult Recreational Therapy Centre, the Mohawk Residential School “Save the Evidence” campaign, a school project in Bangladesh, and Polio Plus, a Rotary program to eliminate polio worldwide.

Julie Baetz, CPA, CA, LPA and Partner at Millards Chartered Professional Accountants says the event lived up to the hype.

“It was hard but fun.”

Baetz says that in spite of the intensity of the challenge, Millards Partners and staff are already talking about next year.

“We’re all sore but pumped! It’s definitely the talk around the water cooler today. The staff that couldn’t make it this year are eager to get in on the fun next year and so we’ll definitely be back to take on the challenge.”

The race included 25 obstacles and various levels of difficulty. The website for the event promised “you will get wet and dirty… but you will have fun in spades.”

Participants in the gruelling but invigorating sport included many local corporate teams. Millards Chartered Professional Accountants rallied an enthusiastic team for 2016 that included Lisa Olinyk, Madison Beedham, Quinn Hotte, Sean Gilroy, Josh McMaster, Patrick Ferrell, Ryan Heimbecker, Mark Malecki, Nichol Waldick, Trevor Schein, Alex Kew, Heidi Meyer, Lindsay Johnston, Keegan Alvestad and Julie Baetz.

Baetz credits the Sunrise Rotary Club for a great event.

“I would definitely give a lot of credit to the organizers for a job well done. The volunteers were well trained and everyone was very encouraging as we made our way through the course. Sunrise did a great job. They thought of everything.”

The Sunrise Rotary Club hopes the mud run will become the club’s premier fundraising event and the success of this year’s event suggests that the busy area service club may have found a new and popular fundraiser to hang their hat on.