WLBZ’s Bill Green to air Adventure Race Saturday

By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    The fifth annual East Grand Adventure Race, in memory of Philip Morse, Sr., had 17 high school teams, along with 14 adult and one solo entry.
    There were over 40 local volunteers helping out at transition points, running safety, keeping score, moving equipment, shuttling racers, cooking food, taking pictures and overseeing the climbing wall. The Danforth Fire Department set up a command center on Rt. 169 with communication to safety personnel for all legs of the race.
    To continue with its coverage, Bill Green of Bill Green’s Maine Outdoors covered the event, and will air the coverage of the race on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Bangor’s WLBZ Channel 2 and WCSH6 in Portland.
    Green decided to venture north for a number of reasons since the first segment of his show is “action-adventure” he wanted the show to begin with energy.
    “We are usually presenting a fast-moving activity,” Green said. “I liked the idea of it because it’s a bit different than even triathlons, it’s sort of new and it’s outdoorsy. I try to do as many stories as I can away from Portland and Bangor.”
    Green was also interested in seeing how the race event fit in around the Stetson Wind Farm turbines.
    “Some people love windmills and some hate them,” he said. “Some want them in the cities where the power is used. Others only want them in rural areas where they are out of sight of the majority. I wanted to see for myself how the wind farm affects an event like this one.”
    Another reason Green appreciated the Adventure Race is its fit with Maine youth.
    “We spend a lot of time covering high school basketball tournaments and they are great,” he said. “However, I think physical education could be made more meaningful if every Maine kid could read a map, swim, paddle and perhaps even sail a boat. The big time sports in Maine are outdoors, so I thought it was a chance to use an event to ‘model’ this kind of activity for all those couch potato kids.”
Next year there are plans to add a mixed adult and student division, women’s, junor/senior and a solo division.