From Dick Baker: 

Beginning July 2019 to get to the start podium located to the right of the registration area has a temporary black screen and sign saying "employees only past that point." They are using this area for a temporary baggage storage area. Walkers DO have permission to enter the area to the podium and sign up for the walk.    

Columbia River Volkssport Club was chartered August 31, 1984. As a way of celebrating the club's anniversary, I reached out to some of the earliest members asking for a bit about what they remember ...

MEMORIES So many memories!!! so I shall just ramble. Way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s we some times handled 500 or so walkers with only 3 or 4 people. We always had to have hat pins and medals. Sometimes we didn't get them in time for the walk and we had to mail them all out to the walkers. Pre registration was also very important so the walkers would be assured they would get the hat pins and medals before we ran out. So before the walk, those we had had to be packaged with hand written pre reg cards (hundreds) ready for the walkers to pick up at the walk.
    In the beginning you had to have water at the every check point and you had to have manned check points so you can imagine how we were going to do that at our first Columbia River Gorge walk. Well we didn't and were we ever in trouble with the "Volks police" and at that time all trails had to be marked (no written directions) so more trouble for CRVC and at that same walk our route took us onto Thunder Island in Cascade Locks and unbeknown to us the Klamath Falls Cave men were having a camp out there and wouldn't let our walkers walk through it But everything got solved that day thanks to the walkers  
    I could talk for hours. I think you all know that CRVC was started by Judy Berry and her Girl Scout group. So thank you Judy for so many good times with CRVC.  

I overlooked a big event coming in August and want to add it to the list of great multi-day events for you to consider. The Four Plus Foolhardy Folks have an exciting weekend of hikes on Aug 2-4 with three hikes near Fairhaven, WA. Consult the Pathfinder or AVA events listing to get the details. Louise and I will see you there.

Just received this note from the AVA IT Committee about the Online Start Box. We updated our logins and they seem to work just fine. Took a little persistence, but we got logged in. 

The Online Start Box (OSB) is up and running on my.ava.org after a heroic effort by Chris Zeglin. Part of what made this so challenging was Chris's commitment to deploy improvements/interface changes (based on user feedback) to the OSB deployed on my.ava.org while assuring all user data and account fund records were imported properly from the cvau.org based system.
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Also, the event details for all 2019 and 2020 OSB events in the AVA ESR have been updated to reflect this move (for example "www.cva4u.org" has been replaced with "https://my.ava.org"). See for example:
http://clubs.ava.org/gen3/data/event_details_mcg.asp?eventid=112359

CRVC received the following request through its website Contact form. In the interest of helping the class with its project, I am posting this article for your enlightenment. 

Comment
Happy Wednesday!

My name is Rachel and I volunteer in an after-school wellness program for a great group of youngsters. While discussing the importance of exercise and looking for information on the benefits of walking, we came across your webpage http://www.walking4fun.org/ We want to say thanks!

One of my students, Anne, did some web searches at home on the topic of walking and I was surprised when she brought in this article for me to see -
https://www.oasisfinancial.com/tips-for-pedestrian-safety-walking-safety-rules/

I suggested that she share this with you because it had a lot of great safety information for those that like to walk. Would you please add it as a link to your webpage for Anne so that your visitors can see it as well? I want to impress Anne and all of the kids, that by having the courage to simply ask, things can be accomplished that they might not otherwise think can. This is a simple exercise, but my hope is that it will be an experience that will create a foundation that can be built upon throughout their lives when they are thinking about trying other things throughout their lives.

Would you please help us with this exercise and lesson? I would love to surprise the entire group the next time we meet. I also don't think it'd hurt that I promised the group a protein-packed, yet healthy pizza day if you'd help! Would you please help with this? Please let me know if you’d be willing so I can share the exciting news with them!

Thank you in advance!

Rachel