Canby Herald Online

Racing for charity

Local teens will race from England to Africa to raise money

• By: Ray Hughey  
• Published: 9/2/2009 9:01:10 AM

Ready, set, go
Canby High School graduates Tate Koenig (middle) and Zach Lowry (left) will partner with Keegan Warrington (right) during this year’s Africa Rally 2009.

Three area teens are planning to drive great lengths to raise money for charity — 10,000 miles, to be precise.

They have entered Africa Rally 2009, a road race from London to Kribi, Cameroon. They will be one of 78 like-minded teams hitting the road in the fundraising event.

The three young men, all students at Oregon State University, are Tate Koenig, 19, of Aurora, a 2008 graduate of Canby High School; Keegan Warrington, 20, a 2007 graduate of West Linn High School; and Zach Lowry, 19, of Beavercreek, a 2008 graduate of Canby High.

“We’re one of two teams from the U.S.,” Koenig said. “One of the other teams has one person from the U.S.”

Koenig and Warrington will do the driving. Lowry, an engineering student, will provide base support and research from home, working by satellite phone and the Internet.

Koenig and Warrington already have some globetrotting under their belts. Warrington took a year off after high school to backpack Southeast Asia on his own and Koenig has twice visited Nicaragua.

They will race as Team COW, named for the COW (Citizens of the World) nonprofit corporation they formed earlier this summer.

COW is created by and run by students to raise funds for various charities, Koenig said.

They will keep donors updated on how and where their contributions are used via Web sites, blogs and e-mail.

They are planning a beach volleyball tournament fundraiser in Corvallis this fall, but the Africa Rally is their first major fundraising event.

The Africa Rally is staged by a United Kingdom-based business, The Adventurists. Last year’s inaugural event drew 42 two-person teams. Twenty-eight teams finished in the event, which raised $122,910 for charity.

Each of the 78 teams must raise a minimum of £ 1,000 for charities. The Team COW road trip will raise money for three charities -- Send a Cow, Ape Action Africa and the Rain Forest Foundation.

Their goal is to raise $15,000 total, including $9,000 for the charities and the $6,000 for expenses during the race. They have already purchased their vehicle, a 1986 four-wheel drive Suzuki Samurai with a rebuilt engine, and paid the $1,000 entry fee. They are seeking donations from area businesses and individuals as well as selling Cow gear -- T-shirts and posters -- online at www.beacow.com.

Not much can be said of the rally rules. There aren’t any, other than the cars must have 1-liter engines.
And for this year’s rally, the cars all must be left-hand drive. Right-hand drive cars are now illegal in Cameroon where the rally finishes and where all the vehicles that finish will be auctioned for charity.
Other than that, they are on their own. The rally, which will take about six weeks, has a start and a finish. Everything in between -- all 10,000 miles -- is up to the contestants.

Koenig and Warrington are aware that much of their driving will be on two-tire track dirt roads.

The Africa Rally Web site emphasizes the event is an adventure, not a guided tour, and has no fixed route. And the vehicles are less than ideal for such a journey. Participants are advised to carry a couple of cans of fuel to cover the long stretches between petrol stations and that it wouldn’t hurt if one of the team members had some mechanical savvy.

That’s where Koenig comes in. He has been working on cars and farm equipment since he was a kid, he said. They will prepare their vehicle for its sojourn in a shop on Koenig’s parents’ Aurora farm. They’ve adjusted the springs for a higher ride and added a roof rack. They plan to pull the back seat for more room, add air conditioning, a skid plate on the bottom and new shocks and tires. They will travel with the four tires on the car and two spares.

The Africa Rally starts Dec. 13 in London and fall semester at OSU ends Dec. 10, Koenig said. He and Warrington hope to take their finals early and leave for England Dec. 1-3.

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