MOST Amazing Race helps solve serious challenges
On its surface, the Twin Cities Salvation Army’s MOST Amazing Race is about engaging in fun challenges – like racing in hamster balls, or eating a half-pound of gummy bears.
Beneath its surface, the race is about something much more serious: solving the challenges of hunger and homelessness.
They are sobering issues. The Wilder Foundation’s most recent study on homelessness indicates that about 10,200 adults, youth and children are homeless on any given night in Minnesota. That’s 340 percent more people than in the early 1990s, when the foundation first began conducting the triennial study.
Hunger is also prevalent. Last year, about 9,000 people per day required food assistance in Minnesota. That’s a slight increase over 2013, with notable jumps in the number of seniors and single adults requiring a helping hand. Overall, one in 10 Minnesotans goes hungry.
“These statistics do not surprise the staff and volunteers working at The Salvation Army’s many food shelves, hot meal programs and housing facilities,” said Lt. Col. Robert Thomson, Salvation Army Northern Division commander. “The need for food and shelter is considerable.”
Thankfully, participants in the MOST Amazing Race have been making a fat dent in the problem: Since 2006, racers have raised nearly $550,000 for Salvation Army food and shelter programs in the Twin Cities.
Last year, these programs:
- Served nearly 500,000 hot meals
- Provided groceries to about 82,000 people
- Provided nearly 370,000 nights of housing
These amazing numbers can be attributed, in part, to the efforts of some MOST Amazing racers. David Hilden, for example, has participated in every single race of the past 10 years, raising nearly $35,000 in the process.
Then there’s mother/son race duo Michele and Tyler Erding, who will soon compete in their first MOST Amazing Race. They’ve already raised $725, sixth-most among the 110 teams registered for this year’s July 25 event.
Money raised by racers like Hilden and the Erdings fund Salvation Army programs that do everything from house hundreds in Minneapolis to feed families in Coon Rapids.
“Participants in the MOST Amazing Race know that the challenges of hunger and homelessness are great,” Thomson said. “They also understand that when everybody chips in, the challenges are winnable.”
Winnable indeed: Last month, state officials declared that homelessness is trending downward.
“The numbers are moving in the right direction,” Thomson said.
You can help drive the numbers down even lower. Join The Salvation Army today by volunteering or making a donation.
There is still time to register for this year’s MOST Amazing Race.