PORT ANGELES — To take top honors at tonight’s Outrageous Olympics, the 12 teams will have to be good with brooms, cell phones and know how to make mean paper airplanes.
The Outrageous Olympics, which began its wacky history four years ago, is an annual fundraiser for the United Way of Clallam County.
The competition will begin at 6 p.m. at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
“I think all of the games will be awesome,” said Karen Brown, event coordinator with Jamye Wisecup, a United Way board member.
Watching the crews work costs nothing; the event is free and open to the public.
A barbecue dinner will be available by donation.
Last year’s Outrageous Olympics raised $3,350.90 for United Way.
With a $200 per team entry fee, the 2010 fundraiser already has earned $2,400.
The teams will be divided into three groups who will go two rounds against each other before the winners progress to the playoffs.
The playoffs will determine the top two teams to compete against each other in the grand finale, according to the official playbook for the games.
All teams will participate in six games.
Prizes will be given to first- second- and third-place winners of the event.
Geek Go
Brown said the Geek Go might be especially interesting because of several younger teams competing.
In Geek Go, a team must accurately text a message to a secured cell phone. No abbreviations will be allowed.
The first team to accurately text the message wins.
Fly Wright will be another game with an interesting angle.
Each team member will make a paper airplane and compete against each other.
The top team member will then compete against the group in the first round.
The winner of that will later go on to a top gun competition in the playoffs to determine the Top Gun.
In Communication Chaos, one team member gives instructions to another on how to build a structure with Legos.
But they can’t look at each other, and the one giving instructions can’t see the structure or the progress being made, while the one building the structure doesn’t know what it is.
Champions
The teams this year include the returning champions, Code Blue, the volunteer firefighters of Port Angeles Fire Department and Clallam County Fire District No. 2.
Other teams are Boy Scouts; City Slickers, city of Port Angeles employees; Crew for the Caws, Green Crow employees; OMC Outbreak, Olympic Medical Center; Powerful Utility Divas, Clallam County Public Utility District; and Roughriders, Port Angeles High School students.
Also, Team Disaster, OMC; Team Methner, Steve and Sarah Methner and family; The YMCA, Clallam County Family YMCA; Un-Tied Way, United Way; and Wild Wild Westport, Westport employees.
The city of Port Angeles donated the use of the Vern Burton center as well as the staff time for setting up, Brown said.
“That was a very generous donation on their part,” she said.
U.S. Bank paid for all the team T-shirts, which were printed by Captain T’s of Port Angeles.
To top off all the competition, fans may contribute by putting money into buckets for their favorite teams.
The team with the most fan support in the 12th Man Fan Competition will win that challenge.
Competitors are allowed — even encouraged — to offer up a bribe to judges.
The bribes are tucked into the 12th Man buckets and ultimately benefit United Way.
The United Way divides undesignated donations to 27 nonprofit agencies and funds its Community Impact Initiatives.
It also distributes funds to nonpartner agencies and other charities as directed by donors.
For more information about United Way, visit www.unitedwayclallam.org.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.