Facebook 2-Day Giveaway Winners Are Ready to Raft!

Last summer Wilderness Aware Rafting ran a contest to giveaway a Free 2-Day Arkansas River rafting adventure to the group that posted the best story as to why they should win. Sara Kranz and her friends won the trip after posting a fantastic and touching story about friendship and adventure. Now the group is gearing up for their trip and wanted to catch up everyone on their plans.

From: Sara Kranz, ie “the Instigator”

Hermosa Beach, CA

The countdown is on! July 6th and 7th, 2012, our group of “home grown friends” will be embarking on an adventure of a lifetime!

Unfortunately, Andrea will not be with us in person due to an unexpected turn of life events (damn those life events :), however she will be near and dear to us in spirit.Watch for upcoming blogs, as we have a “surprise” for her to see… lol! The trickery does not end just because you are not there to defend yourself! As for who is taking Andrea’s place, we have Tracy McGoldrick flying in from Texas. Tracy is a dear friend of mine, and we go way back; we both lived in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin at the same time, and Tracy is married to one of my husbands’ best friends from college (did you get that? No worries, as this is only 1 of a million intertwining events that have occurred in our lives.) Tracy is an outdoor enthusiast, but has never been white-water rafting. She will fill you in more during her “blog post”. As for me, I cannot wait to hit the wild rapids with my closest friends in tow, laughing till it hurts (it usually hurts badly!) Sharing life stories, reminiscing about the past, discussing the present, and laughing about the future is what we do best! I am up for anything, quite honestly, so pictures beware, you never know what you may see! Hopefully Wilderness Aware can “handle” our group of crazy women, as we are more than ready to make memories that we will never forget! THANK YOU, Wilderness Aware, for making this happen!

From: Kim Linz

The trip is so close I can hardly believe it. It is pretty chilly today in Southern California, so it is hard to believe I will be rafting in the sun (hopefully) with my favorite girls in 6 short weeks.

From our application you know I am a cancer survivor. What you may not know is that I still live with cancer and take chemo daily. Despite this I am an avid hiker, runner, and biker. I do not let my illness slow me down. After a scare this fall and surgery that had me believing I might not be able to make this trip, I am recovered and more ready than ever!

I am an elementary school principal. I still have 4 weeks of school left before I leave for this exciting trip and work is keeping me crazy. I put the countdown for summer up in my office window today and have the countdown for this trip on my mirror at home. My students and their families know that I am leaving soon after summer starts for this trip and I am getting a lot of advice! I have never been white water rafting, but love the water. Everyone tells me this will be the trip of a life time!

I am sad Andrea won’t be joining us, but am excited to have Tracy jump on board. I think we have a great group that will laugh the entire time. I hope you are ready for us because I can’t wait!

See you in July!

From: Tracy McGoldrick

Cheers! As you may have read, I am the newest recruit for the July rafting ‘extravaganza’! Or shall we re-name it: Rafting-palooza? I say this because there will be not only wild waters but wild times over these few days together.

A bit of background: As Sara noted, we met because our husbands were college roommates. The interesting part is that I have not met the other 2 gals- and this truly echo’s my current mantra and journey in life.

At 42 years of age, I had never moved out of my zip code (except 3 years away at college). My husband and I had been aching for a change (weather related mostly) and we took a risk as a family (three young kids) and moved cross country to McKinney, Texas one year ago! I have never looked back. I find the new friendships, business connections (oh, did I note that I started my own business venture 6 months ago?), and everyday newness refreshing ~ just plain ole’ good-for-my-soul. So, with this new adventure put at my feet (thank you, Sara), I say namaste and bring it on!

My mantra: I believe life is about enjoying and believing what you do…whether that be family or professional.