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VALLEY — The rainout of Saturday’s LaFayette Day was another unneeded hit for the fundraising for Valley Haven School. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of most of the events in the 2020 Hike/Bike/Run. A virtual run and the Walt Meadors Invitational Golf Tournament brought in some fundraising, but it was far less than normal. For more than three decades, the Hike/Bike/Run had brought in more than $100,000 every year. This is money that serves as a match for the state and federal funding needed to keep the school operating on a high level. Last year’s fundraising came in at around $35,000. It was really good given the circumstances, but far less than what had been generated in previous years.

LaFayette Day normally brings in around $10,000. Since there are no present plans to reschedule it, that portion of the 2021 Hike/Bike/Run will be significantly down this year. “We will still make between $3,500 and $4,000,” said Executive Director Craig Brown. “The private donations we had and the sale of the t-shirts will help. Also, Randy Morgan, who was going to be cooking barbecue for us, was able to sell all ten Boston butts. We were able to avoid a loss there.”

It’s pretty safe to say the next event won’t be rained out. The annual Hike/Bike/Run Auction will be held inside the Community Room at Valley Community Center. It will be taking place on Friday evening, April 23rd. The doors will open at five o’clock so everyone can see all the items that will be up for bids. “I think we are going to have a really good auction this year,” Brown said. “We have a lot of items left over from last year, and we’ve had a good many coming in this year.”

Those items include lots of furniture and framed paintings, insulation from Knauf, buckets from Berry (formerly Letica), birdhouses from Charles Chapman, certificates for oil changes and many other interesting and unique items. “We will have a complete list of everything that will be up for bids the week of the auction.” Brown said. “We are still accepting donations. We will have information on that over the next two weeks.”

There’s also some good news about the bowling tournament. “We are going to be having it at Valley Bowl on Wednesday, May 4th,” Brown said. “We appreciate James and Harry Caldwell working with us on it. To reduce the crowd size we will be doing it in two waves, the first one at 6 p.m. and the second one at 8 p.m. This will allow us to be more spread out.”

The 45th annual Hike/Bike/Run is set for Saturday, May 1st. Hopefully, the weather will be kind. Highlighting the event will be the Albert Thornton Memorial Run. Participants are invited to walk or run their choice of one mile, 4k (2.49 miles) of 5k (3.1 miles). The runs will be taking place not far from the school. The one mile will start at 8 a.m. EDT, the 4k at 8:30 and the 5k at 9:30. Medals will be given to the overall winners, the masters winners and first, second and third place awards in ten age groups for the 4k and 5k races.

Something new this year is the opportunity to run both the actual races along with virtual ones. The virtual runs will be taking place between April 29 and May 4th. Times may be submitted to rkeel@mindspring.com before May 4th. The entry fee is $20 for any one race, if it’s received by April 23rd; $25 for any two races, and $30 for three. After April 23rd, it’s $25 for any one race, $30 for two and $35 for three.

Entry forms are available at Valley Haven. For information about the races, call Valley Haven School at (334) 756-2868.

The annual Jane Carmack Walk will start at 7 a.m. in downtown West Point. Those taking part will walk seven miles to Valley Haven School.

“It is what it is,” Brown said about Saturday’s rain out. “We hated that it worked out that way this year. We decided not to reschedule it because we didn’t want to interfere with other events that had been planned for the upcoming weekends. People schedule their events around LaFayette Day and the Hike/Bike/Run not to interfere with us, and we are returning them that favor.”

Saturday’s rain storm also canceled part of Clean Up Valley Day and postponed part of it to this coming weekend. The heavy rain ended plans to pick up litter along the roadsides that morning. People were encouraged to do this on their own when the weather’s better.

The Friday portion of the e-waste day at the Farmers Market Pavilion went on from 8 a.m. till 3 p.m. EDT as scheduled, but the Saturday portion was postponed until this coming Saturday. From 8 a.m. utill 3 p.m., Valley residents will be able to drop off any unwanted electronic item with a cord, along with appliances, old tires and other items AmWaste will not pick up at your curb.

A shred-it truck will be there from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday to shred any old documents you might want to get rid of.

The week of April 5-9, AmWaste ran extra trucks to pick up spring cleaning items people left by the curb. The week of April 12-16 they will be running extra trucks to pick up yard trimmings Valley residents leave by the curb.

Saturday’s rain also put a damper on a citywide yard sale that had been planned. With good weather, people would likely have been coming to it from out of town.