BRANDON, S.D. (KELO) — A local community is playing its own version of a popular reality television competition.
Michael Gross is meeting with members of his team at Kingbird Coffee Shop in Brandon, mapping out every step of this November’s The Amazing Race.
“You’re going to do physical, mental, and different types of challenges that are going to get you to the end goal,” event organizer Michael Gross said.
The Amazing Race through Brandon will feature nearly two dozen stops.
“Probably about eight hours of an Amazing Race and we have different businesses that are taking on different challenges for us just to help us out to make it more of a community event,” Gross said.
The list of challenges includes rolling and stacking tires at Northwest Tire and climbing the McHardy Park Tower.
“One person from your team, so it’s teams of four, one person has to run up and down the Tower 20 times,” Gross said.
But some challenges are tastier than others.
“Each team will be eating a large pizza, as fast as they can so yeah, they’ve got to eat it fast and eat a lot,” Pizza Ranch owner Aaron Hansen said.
Aaron Hansen owns the local Pizza Ranch and says The Amazing Race is a win for the community.
“To be able to be a part of it and to have people come in and see and share in the excitement I think is a great thing,” Hansen said.
The top three teams will collect a cash prize, including $750 to the winner. But The Amazing Race is also a fundraiser.
“We are charging $100 for teams of four, which in my opinion is really, really cheap for a fun eight-hour event. You’re going to get fed, you’re going to get lots of stuff out of it, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth, but any leftover if we get past 15 teams we’ll be able to donate money to a nonprofit or charity here in Brandon,” Gross said.
While shining a spotlight across the city.
“Brandon’s a fun town, we’ve got great schools, we’ve got great stuff to do, come to Brandon, come have some fun,” Gross said.
“The Amazing Race” is Saturday, November 9th, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at Kingbird Coffee Shop in Brandon. The cost is $100 per team. You must pre-register, and space is limited, with a maximum of 30 teams competing.