Students go green for Amazing Race

Nathaniel Edwards was tired, hungry and smiling. As he asked his peers about the “life-cycle” of different materials, he and his teammate, Gabby Gude, matched recycled items with their source during a checkpoint on campus yesterday.

They were racing.

Edwards, Gude and 14 other middle school students were racing against two other 15-person teams around Lexington to complete The Amazing Race: Going Green. By going “green,” students traversed on foot around Lexington, including a walk from Rupp Arena to the Student Center.

The “racing” concept stems from the CBS reality show, The Amazing Race, in which contestants in teams of two must race across the world, complete challenges and outwit their competitors.

Lexington’s Amazing Race asked these middle school students to do just that – on a local level.

Hosted by Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Parks & Recreation and partnered with UK Student Affairs and Housing, 45 middle school students from the REAL (Recreation Enrichment And Learning) Middle School Summer Camp started their day at the Lexington Herald-Leader on Midland Avenue and were on campus near noon.

Shane Tedder, sustainability coordinator for the Office of Residence Life, met each group of students and challenged them to the recycling “life-cycle” game. Students had to complete the game in order to advance to the next checkpoint: lunch.

With lunch complete, students had to locate Baldwin Hall and find the one door that was unlocked in the three-story building.

Overall, the students were on campus for almost three and a half hours before they departed to Calvary Baptist Church. From there, they had more tasks to complete until the winning team arrived at the Courthouse and were given the title of winners in the Amazing Race.

The winners won a pizza party for the rest of the camp, and ice cream sundaes for their team.