Dr. Bob Brown, Dean of the College of Natural Resources at NC State University, will be one of nine kayakers participating in the Hope Floats 9-day, 225 mile kayak trip this April.
The group will paddle from Raleigh to Beaufort down the Neuse River. Hope Floats is part of the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life campaign, which raises funds through walks, runs, bike trips and kayak trips. The group is limited to 9 paddlers for the entire trip, but others are invited to join this group for one-day trips. The group has set a fund-raising goal of $ 5,000, but hopes to raise much more. Each paddler has an individual fund-raising goal.
Along the way, a “Reserve Team” will follow along by car, helping to establish camps each night and prepare meals. Each paddler pays $ 150 to cover the expenses – in addition to the fund raising.
Brown has done kayaking and canoe trips before. When he came to NCSU in 2006, his photo was taken with a kayak – and he in suit and tie. Brown got started in canoeing as a Scoutmaster and Boy Scout Venturing Crew Leader, twice taking groups to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.
He later got into marathon canoe and kayak racing, participating in both a solo kayak and a tandem canoe in several 40 – 60 mile races – the “Colorado 100” mile race in Texas three times, and the grueling 260-mile “Texas Water Safari” five times. The later race has to be completed in 100 hours, which involves paddling at night, portaging around or over fallen trees and broken dams at night, and little sleep. “I had to drop out of that race twice, once for utter exhaustion and once for dehydration, “Brown said.
“No one in my family has had cancer, fortunately, and by raising funds for cancer research I hope to keep it that way,” Brown said. Anyone interested in learning more about the trip or contributing to the fund can do so at hopefloatscn.org .