R.C. Fest

RC Fest started out a little differently this year because Adam was recognized by Illinois Coalition of Blood Drive Centers for being the Most Innovative Blood Drive Coordinator in the state of Illinois.  This award is very special to us because we know Adam’s story touches the lives of people and makes them willing to donate like none other.  Seeing what Adam is capable of doing because he had someone selflessly give him the gift of life and for him to pay back the way he has moves me beyond words.

Adam was also given another special honor at RC Fest.  He was given a proclamation by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn that July be declared Illinois Blood Drive Coordinator Month in Adam’s honor due to his efforts to always get more blood donations.  Being recognized in this way is monumental to us.  Adam has always known he is here for a reason.  His reason is to tell people to donate blood.  He wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for someone helping him. 

 

Adam managed to easily and successfully jump the bloodmobile with his ECX Revenge type E given to him from Horizon Hobby.  He wanted to do this because RC Fest is also about showing people what they can do with r/c’s.  Before his jump I went to him to give him a good luck kiss and a little pep talk and he told me he knew he would make it.  He had no doubts in his mind because we know what he is capable of.

 

Jacob from Tolono won the Silent D RC Ultimate Bashers Slash.  I remember seeing Jacob and his father sitting at the dug out during the Tolono Fun Day demonstration.  Jacob reminded me of Adam as a little boy watching monster trucks and our friends with their remote control cars.  Jacob stayed for the entire thing.  He would have stayed even longer if it would have lasted longer.  That tells me Jacob is a RC fan for life.  I couldn’t be happier with him winning it.

 

Bryante Downing won the Slash 2wd donated by Central RC Hobbies.  This Slash was donated to specifically be given away to one lucky participant.  We loved that he took his truck straight out of the box and used it to compete in freestyle. 

Cameron Parker won the Pro2 from Proline Racing.  Cameron was the last person to pre-register for RC Fest.  We had 36 people pre-register for RC Fest and you had to be present to win. To win this rc meant a lot to us because as many of you know Adam is now sponsored by Pro-line as a team driver.  Cameron has been instrumental in helping Adam with both RC Fest and his racing.  Adam calls and texts Cameron and asks advice and Cameron helps him.  Cameron has become a mentor to Adam.  Cameron wants to use this truck to help him even more. 

 

Ken Cline’s wife Kari won the Twin Hammers from Horizon Hobby. Ken has been a friend of ours for years.  In fact, he and Adam use to not only bash together at Slot and Wing Hobbies but would race together at WS Raceway in Paxton IL.  Ken brought his Gmade R1 to RC Fest last year for fun and that is part of why Adam included crawling at this year’s event.    Ken also won Sportsman of the year because he helped Adam out by bringing Slidewayz RC drift club to RC Fest so people could see what real drifting is all about.  And because he helped get us in touch with Brad Brucker who brought his rock crawling trailer to our event.  Ken also helped organize our kid event which was blindfolding kids one at a time and driving into a hula hoop to see who was the closest.  Ken also helped us set up on Friday night and came early to help finish setting up on Saturday morning. 

***Still waiting confirmation on their names***

____ won the Dromida give away.

______ won the wheel board which included a Dromida with a better charger and all the hop ups.

Nolan Salyers won the ECX Circuit 4x4. 

According to Community Blood Services of Illinois Adam had 30 people attempt to donate blood.  25 of them donated blood.  Which could potentially save 75 people’s lives.  I am still waiting to hear how many first time donors Adam had at his event.  First time donors are special to us because if we know his story impacted someone enough to try donating for the first time his message is reaching more people.  I know Chelle Dziak donated blood for the first time because of learning about Adam.  I never would have donated if it wasn’t for someone donating for Adam.  I always hear how people are scared of needles so they wont donate.  I don’t like needles either.  Honestly, when I donate.. I think about the pain I went thru in the hospital when Adam was so sick.. And I remember that hurt and I imagine how much worse that pain would have been if someone didn’t step into the blood bank and donate.  I am thankful someone did that for him and I want to give that gift to someone.

Over all, attendance was lower then last year.  There was a serious threat of rain in the area which we believed kept many people away.  We had a beautiful day until near the end and it started to pour. We had to give out awards in the back of a 48 ft enclosed trailer on loan from Parkland College.  Thankfully we had that for refuge though it did not allow us to get any pictures of the awards being handed out since we did it from a dark trailer.  Adam had 139 entries into his one day event.

People have approached us asking that we do this twice a year.  People have also approached us asking for a two day event.  RC Fest 2015 will be even BIGGER then this year.

He has several ideas he is tossing around… if you have any suggestions don’t hesitate to suggest them.  However, he is the one who makes all final decisions on what RC Fest will be.

 

At the end of 2014 Adam can say he has helped the blood bank recieve over 85 units of blood just at RC Fest.  That is enough to potentially help save 255 peoples lives.He has also collected over $4000 in monetary donations.  He has also helped Donate Life by getting 6 more people to sign up to be organ and tissue donors.  Because he knows people may need more then just blood.

Thank you for your continued support of Adam and RC Fest and keep listening for updates on him and his life of RC vehicles.  Please continue to support your local blood banks because even though RC Fest is over the need is still there.  Donate blood every 56 days so someone can have the same chance at life that Adam was given.

Much Love RC Fest Friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RC Fest 2013 was held on Aug 10th in Tolono IL. with 12 year old Adam Munds as the promoter and announcer.

The day started as Adam went onto the field driving a yellow Duratrax Evader given to Adam from Hobbico. He asked if his sponsor Beth Swighart of Monicals of Tolono to come out onto the field because he had a giant paper Monicals Pizza at the end of the ramp as he let Gryfen Good from Pesotum IL. test drive it.  Gryfen tried hard to drive thru the pizza thought it was no easy task for such a rookie driver. Adam asked Gryfen if he would just be willing to take the truck home to practice with it and come back for RC Fest 2014 show us how he improved. Gryfen was stunned that Adam would just give him the Evader to keep. Gryfen was all smiles when he walked off the track as you can only imagine.

 

This is the same way Adam started his event last year. It is important to him to do a give away because one of his goals for his show is to encourage other people to get interested in r/c’s.

 

Adam could never had imagined his event growing the way it did this year. He had participants from as far away as Chicago IL, St. Louis MO, Shelbyville IN, Springfield IL. & Bloomington IL.  There were 41 participants that brought 70 surface r/c’s at this years event along with 4 people that brought multiple planes. Some of the planes could actually take off though the park isn’t the most ideal place with out having a runway, the power lines and trees that surround the park. None the less his turn out increased from last years event of an estimated 20 r/c’s. Which made for a long day of running and a long day of fun for those of us into r/c’s.

RC Fest biggest event was the speed run portion of the event which was first. There were 45 vehicles in this event. There was more on the line then just bragging rights. The winners wanted to win a MaxAmps lipo, a CowRC pit mat and the first place trophy.

Aaron Cambell flipped his car upside down and drove under Craig Nelson of Big Squid as he was using his radar gun to clock the speeds of the cars. One of cars the crowd really liked was Tim Maxwell’s 1949 Willy’s drag car that reached
speeds of 41 mph. Big Squid driver Tim Mohr went off the road and into the ditch launching his truck 10 feet into the air getting a speed of 60 mph which tied him for first place with Brandon Reich. In order to break the tie we would have needed to re-run both trucks though Tim graciously handed the win to Brandon. High jump was the second event for the day and though we didn’t see the heights we expected to see it defiantly was a big crowd pleaser. Tim managed to get his r/c going again before this event and once again we seen Tim and Brandon in the tied for finals with 36 feet in the air.  There were some pretty tense moments with the guys (Adam’s cousins) catching as they did not know what to expect. A couple really good highlights from the high jump portion was when our friend Steve Turpin who was in the bucket of the van we used to measure from was actually able to catch Brandon Lynches Traxxas Bandit in mid air as it zoomed past him. I think they whole crowd cheered on that move.  Another thing worth mentioning is Dyllan Warren who is only 9 years old came in third with his 10 SCTE that jumped 35 feet.  Two wheel drive racing had 25 participants that ranged in age from 5 years old to someone in his mid 40’s. In the end, it would be Ty Brown with his brushless Rustler beat Brandon Reich with his Losi 22 SCT. Brandon says his wheel hex stripped out causing him to be a “one wheel drive” or he could have easily taken him.

Parker Boastick driving his new EXC Torment struggled with transmission issues and Cubby from Big Squid didn’t go unnoticed by the crowd as he stepped up to help Parker out by loaning him his personal truck to run for the event. He did this for racing and again for freestyle and that earned him the Sportsman of the Year award. Probably the closest race was between Brandon Reich this time with his EB48 and Ken Cline driving a Slash 4x4 battling for 3rd place. Adam said it was hard to tell who it was that won. Neither driver really knew who crossed the line first but Ken Cline agreed to let Brandon have the win. Four wheel drive racing was won by Tim Mohr driving his SCTE against DaVon Hood driving a brushless Emaxx for 2nd place.  Freestyle is always fun because it gives the drivers a chance to do what ever they want to do. We made a cardboard birthday cake for third year of RC Fest. In addition to the cake we also had a giant MaxAmps lipo for the drivers to hit. An AKA tire (really a pool toy) and a Spektrum radio that was paper mache. Greg Sopa had a really nice double back flip off the ramp with his Traxxas Stampede Son uva Digger.

Ken Cline didn’t disappoint when he stacked the rv’s up on the dirt ramp and demolished them with his first hit. It was the best moment of the day earning him the Top WOW moment of 2013.

Ben Buckles managed to pull wheelies across the baseball diamond earning him the 2nd place spot. Ty Brown had a completely different strategy that worked really well for him. He had his eye on the award for the Top Donut. He came out onto the field with his Rustler and did a non stop donut. That is one way to do it. Cubby also had an incredible move where as after his freestyle he drove his truck straight towards the fence and drove UP the fence launching his truck an estimated 12 feet into the air.

Though it was Andrew Warren took the win with his 10 Scte and launched it 60 feet into the in field landing it on all four wheels which really impressed everyone that seen it. He had issues with his ESC but we stopped the clock and gave him the chance to let it cool and go again.  New for 2013 we also had a truck pull. We want to give a big thanks to “Uncle Mike” from Slot & Wing for bringing his sled and helping run the event since we have never done this before. It was a lot of fun for us to watch which also gave Adam a short break.

Stephan Bleichner won with a Traxxas Summit with Brandon Lynch coming in 2nd with his Traxxas Tmaxx. We seen some very clever ways of attaching weight to various r/c for both truck pulls and tug of war. Everything from using a first aide container to zip lock baggy with rocks from the parking lot to water bottles shoved under the body and even a person with his mom’s Tupperware container with coins in it that he later used to buy raffle tickets. Pretty good impromptu thinking on everyone’s part. Brandon Lynch actually had a thought this thru and had something made for the front of his Tmaxx.

Tug of War is always a crowd pleaser. I was very happy that Jeremy Kilian won the 2wd class with his Stampede Monster Jam edition. This was his first event with this truck and from what I was told he just got it prior to coming to our event. Second place was won by Tim Mohr whose truck only stopped because of thermal shut down. Sad way to go out but at least nobody roasted a motor during tug of war this year. Four wheel drive Tug of War was interesting when Stephen Bleichner with his Summit was supposed to verse himself driving an E-Revo. Stephen gave his controls to Brandon Lynch and he beat his own truck and advanced onto verse Ken Cline whose slipper clutch went out during the pull allowing Stephen to take the win.  Ironically, Brandon Reich managed to be Grand Champion for RC Fest 2013. Which is pretty cool since Brandon is Adam’s best bashing friend. In fact, when Adam came to us about making this event for his friends to win prizes and trophies- he was talking about doing this for Brandon. Adam had several personal goals for his event this year. He wanted to get 3 gallons of blood and make $1500. He had his work cut out for him and knew he had to step it up if he wanted to do that well.  One of the things he had to do was spread the word about his show. He went to Tolono Fun Day parade and had a stand set up at the park to sell raffle tickets and did a demonstration. He also went to the Fisher Fair and sold raffle tickets. And as if that wasn’t enough he also went to the Sidney Fun Daze event and had a demonstration and sold raffle tickets. We went to area towns and asked for different r/c stores to hand out fliers. Monicals Pizza of Tolono purposefully held a blood drive 56 days prior to Adams to encourage people to donate at Adam’s event. Adam was encouraged to talk to both Horizon Hobby and Hobbico even though typically a joint sponsorship doesn’t normally happen. He not only managed to get both as sponsors but he also got a personal tour of Hobbico. We reached out to sponsors locally and from all over the country and asked them to take a chance on him and they did. We reached out to people on Facebook and promoted this show. Adam appeared on local tv shows and local radio stations to talk about his event. He also handed out fliers for his event at our local airfields July 3rd event. Adam has spent endless hours working on RC Fest. I can’t even begin to give you a number. He does it because he wants to build an event to make people want to come from all over to participate in. He also does it because he aspires to become Basher Approved from Big Squid. If he doesn’t make it he is still pretty happy they came to RC Fest and spent the day bashing.

 

People ask us when is the next RC Fest? I can say it IS going to happen again for 2014. Adam began planning RC Fest 2014 in May of 2013. He is a very determined and hard working young man with a lot of passion for what he does.

 

We want to thank all of the people who came out to bash with us. There were two people who had some pretty bad luck prior to RC Fest but were still determined to come out for the event. We really appreciate everyone we have made friendships with over this past year.

Speed runs (tie at 60mph) had 45 entries
Brandon Reich 1st Tim Mohr 2nd

High jump (tie at 36 feet)
Brandon reich 1st
Tim Mohr 2nd
Close 3rd from 9 yr old Dyllan Warren at 35 feet

2wd racing had 25 participants
Ty brown 1st with a Rustler
Brandon Reich with a 22 Scte

4wd racing
Tim Mohr 1st
DaVon Hood 2nd
3rd place very close between Brandon Reich and Ken Cline

Freestyle:
1st Andrew Warren
2nd place Ben Buckles

Lots of great freestyles from Ken Cline who simply didn't win because his freestyle won him the best WOW moment award and Ty Brown's continuous donut won him the best donut of the year award.

Cubby had a spectacular move when he ran his truck up the fencing near the dug out but it
was after the time had ran out in the clock.

Tug of war 2wd
Rookie Jeremy Kiian with his brand new stampede
2nd Tim Mohn who went into thermal shut down

Tug of war 4wd
Stephen Bleichner 1st
ken Cline 2nd

Pulling was won by
Stephen Bleichner 1st
Brandon lynch 2nd

Grand Champion awarded to Brandon Reich.

 

Adam did reach his blood donation goal of 3 gallons of blood, we are still waiting to hear a final number on how much exactly and how many people wanted to but were deferred. He managed to make $1600.  His
goal is $1500.

                                      Our family would like to express our appreciation to:
CowRC, Monicals Pizza of Tolono, Horizon Hobby, Hobbico, Hot Slots racing, Ws Raceway, Jconcepts, MaxAmps, Canham Graphics, Traxside of Tolono, Fifth Dimension, HRP,Novak, Silent D RC, Egyptsean productions, Napa of Champaign, Marble Slab Creamery, Stevie Jay Broadcasting, Coffin Custom Rc, Millrich outdoors, The Village of Tolono, The Tolono Park District, Grahams Trophies, AKA and The RC Shack and Slot and Wing.

Adam got 4 people to sign up to be organ and tissue donors. That is enough to potentially save 100 people's lives. He also help Community Blood Services of Illinois collect 3 gallons of blood which is all that could be collected during the time frame of his show. Each pint of blood collected can save up to three people. So the total number of lives RC Fest may have potential to help is 172!

 

You can see some pictures via facebook at: Official RC Fest facebook page.