Challenge volunteers turn job into a party

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Volunteer Ken Lassiter, left, has a laugh with volunteer Norm Hanson, a Wisconsin resident who has come to Bella Vista to volunteer with the Cancer Challenge the past 18 years.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Volunteer Ken Lassiter, left, has a laugh with volunteer Norm Hanson, a Wisconsin resident who has come to Bella Vista to volunteer with the Cancer Challenge the past 18 years.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Out in the hot sun, Wisconsin resident Norm Hanson spent his whole day -- starting shortly before sunrise -- moving supplies all over Kingswood Golf Course to ensure Cancer Challenge participants could remain hydrated and fed.

In addition to the estimated 1,700 participants, the Cancer Challenge drew roughly 250 volunteers this year.

Hanson said he drove 10-and-a-half hours from his home in Janesville, Wis., to work in Northwest Arkansas. This is his 18th year volunteering for the Cancer Challenge.

He started volunteering nearly two decades ago, he said, after he retired from a 32-and-a-half-year career with the Janesville Police Department. A friend who lived here suggested he come down and lend a hand, he said. He's been doing it ever since -- and looking forward to it each year.

"It's fun, it's a good organization," he said. "I really have a good time coming down here."

He ran supplies up and down the Kingswood Golf Course, delivering them to stations staffed by people like Ashley Thomason, a nurse with Community Clinic, who came out to represent her employer and provide first aid, if needed, alongside the course.

"It makes my job a little bit more enjoyable today," Thomason said.

Heat stroke, she said, was the biggest issue she saw on the course, largely because people weren't drinking enough water.

And on the other end of the supply-chain spectrum was Bella Vista resident Ken Lassiter, who was volunteering for his 20th year. He was in charge of the event's operations team.

"Before I retired," he said, "I took a week's vacation every year to do this."

This year he was ultimately responsible, he said, for keeping products moving through the course and ensuring volunteer stations stayed well-supplied.

"Which is a headache," he said.

In addition to manning supply lines and volunteer tents, he said, the challenge also needs volunteers in place at either end of some courses simply to verify holes-in-one.

The volunteers started at 5:30 in the morning, he said, and post-game had to break down the golf course and, Thursday night, go to the Highlands gun range for a crawfish boil. And that, he said, was one day out of an event they work all week.

It's helped, he said, by corporate sponsors who give supplies and loan tools.

Despite the long days, he said, he's glad to help the Cancer Challenge. To date, he said, it has raised over $12 million for a cause he believes in.

"Every dime of that stays in Northwest Arkansas," he said.

Hanson's impressed by the organization, he said, because in addition to keeping the money local, all the money it raises is put to work, rather than into its advertising budget.

Between a good cause and a good time, he said, it's worth his while to keep coming.

Moreover, he said, people in Northwest Arkansas tend to be friendly, and coming yearly has given him a chance to watch the area change.

"How it's grown is unbelievable," he said.

But what's remained largely the same, he said, is the challenge's ability to attract good company for him to work alongside.

"It's a lot of good people here," he said. "We turn a job into a party."

General News on 06/14/2017