Waldorf College Joins RAGBRAI XXXVI
RAGBRAI XXXVI
"Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa"
June 20-26, 2008
RAGBRAI is one of Iowa’s most beloved traditions. Waldorf College is joining the tradition and hopes to make doing so one of its own.
Waldorf College will put its inaugural team of bikers on the trail of the famous eight-day, 470-mile bicycle marathon. No doubt, Waldorf’s riders will have some fun and get some exercise along the way, but more importantly RAGBRAI will be a way to get Waldorf’s name out to prospective students.
“What I like is it’s a week-long college fair,” said Seth Miner, admissions counselor and organizer of the Waldorf RAGBRAI team. “What we’re hoping to do is have a tent in every town and have brochures, applications and info – everything families and prospective students want to know about Waldorf.”
Thanks to Miner’s recruiting efforts, nine members of the Waldorf community will be participating in the non-competitive marathon, which is scheduled to run July 19-26.
This year, RAGBRAI’s ever-changing route begins in Missouri Valley on the western border. The route runs east through central and southern parts of Iowa, making its nightly stops in Harlan, Jefferson, Ames, Tama-Toledo, North Liberty, Tipton before concluding in Le Claire, near the Quad Cities.
It’s largely in these “host” communities that Miner and his fellow riders hope to carry out their recruiting efforts, hopefully giving Waldorf a stronger presence in those parts of the state.
It’s a hard road across the state, but through Waldorf’s alumni newsletter, Miner spoke with alums living along the route who will make their yards and showers available to the Waldorf riders. He hopes alumni will be more involved in the future as the word spreads.
While having nine riders won’t make Waldorf the largest group out there – nor even the largest college presence – Miner is pleased with the initial interest and believes this year’s event is the start of something bigger.
“I’m hoping to get as much support throughout this, and I’m looking forward to turning this into an annual event,” he said “In my eyes, we’ll still make an impact (with nine riders) and be noticeable in a good way.
In the future, he hopes to organize a team of 20-30 riders to spread the name of Waldorf.
“That (20-30 riders) is a fairly decent crowd and will draw a lot of attention,” he said. “We want people to look up and know that Waldorf is coming through. We want to put our name out there so people will know more about us.”
Contact Seth Miner for more information:
miners@waldorf.edu
641-585-8118
