Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993 TAG: 9308130259
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
This trip, however, will be a bit different than your standard, laid-back, weekend floating and fishing excursion.
Grant is part of a 15-member team - the "Big Blue Canoe Crew" - that is launching a 2,000-mile, 12-state, three-river, two-month fund-raising trip.
The idea is to generate donations through sponsorships for Canoeing for Kids, an organization founded by South Carolinian Jay Alley.
Since it's his brainchild, Alley's going to be in the canoe for the entire journey. He'll be assisted in weeklong shifts by friends and family, including Grant.
"I'm probably one of the most novice members of the crew," laughs Grant, 31, who will exchange his spiffy business suit for tennis shoes and river muck when his paddling turn comes later this month.
Everyone else on the crew either canoes regularly or has been practicing for the trip, but Grant said his job as a regional sales manager for Hubbell Lighting has only allowed a weekend or so to prepare.
"I'll be pretty sore," he said.
Even so, Grant's leg with Alley will be a 260-mile stretch of the Ohio River between Huntington, W.Va., and Louisville, Ky.
Alley will begin his voyage this weekend when he puts his 18-foot canoe in at a western New York state reservoir. From there he'll connect to the Allegheny, the Ohio and the Mississippi, proceeding to New Orleans.
His daily goals are to paddle between eight and 10 hours and average 20 miles.
Nights will be spent at predetermined riverside camping spots. The voluntary "Big Blue Canoe Crew" will have one member in the canoe with Alley and a third following in a car to provide support.
Alley is a self-employed carpenter and avid canoeist who has been promoting the trip and lining up sponsors for several years.
Proceeds will benefit either the donor's favorite children's charity or Canoeing for Kids, which plans to donate funds to a South Carolina children's home. Alley's goal is to raise at least $100,000.
Locally, several fund-raising events to promote the trip have been held by the Blacksburg United Methodist Church, where Lynne Alley-Grant - Alley's sister and Grant's wife - is assistant minister.
Those proceeds are earmarked for Camp Altamont, a Methodist youth retreat near Shawsville.
Grant staged a final fund-raiser at his home Wednesday night for Alley, who was passing through own on his way to New York and the beginning of the big trip.
Alley's determination to make the trip wasn't blunted recently when he was struck by lightning on the shore of a South Carolina lake, Grant said.
The bolt knocked him unconscious, put him in the hospital for four days and singed dollar bills in Alley's wallet, but it won't keep him out of the canoe, Grant said.
by CNB