The color of orange

Gorge Games organizers found the grassroots support they were looking for last month in the form of a different kind of root: Carrots.

In a press release entitled "Gorge Games; powered by Carrots," Gorge Games founder Peggy Lalor announced the Prosser-based Mercer Ranch's three-year commitment to support the Gorge Games.

"The Gorge Games is about healthy life choices," Lalor wrote in the press release. "That is why we are so excited to have the opportunity to work with Mercer Ranch to promote eating healthy carrots."

Although Mercer Ranch owner Rob Mercer wouldn't disclose how much of his carrot-farm's budget the company chose to devote to supporting the Gorge Games, he did say it should be enough for the company to be considered a primary sponsor.

"We're looking at it long term," Mercer said. "But as the Gorge Games becomes more and more successful, we don't know how long we'll be able to afford it at this level."

Mercer Ranch briefly consulted with Lalor about a sponsor relationship last year.

"But I couldn't sell him (Rob Mercer) anything until I knew I had an event going forward," Lalor said. "This year they're going to get more bang for their buck. It (Mercer's relationship with Gorge Games) is a long-term deal. I want it to be a long-term deal. I think he deserves some credit for stepping up during this tenuous stage."

Taco Del Mar's Hood River-location owner Tom Wood also convinced the corporate office of the baja burrito franchise to contribute $5,500 to the Gorge Games. Taco Del Mar committed May 24.

"The main reason is that the Gorge Games have a lot of the same values that we as a restaurant have as well," Wood said. "The words right out of Peggy's mouth are `healthy, lifestyle choices, exercising and being outside.'"

Wood met with Taco Del Mar's corporate vice president of marketing, Neal Hollingsworth, May 17 in Portland in an effort to add to what Wood had already contributed.

"I'm so excited," Wood said. "It took some pitching. We were targeting the bronze level of membership ($5,000 to $10,000) and that's what we got."

Wood and his wife, Holly Higdon-Wood, opened the Taco Del Mar on Oak Street two years ago, which has been long enough for him to notice the disparity in the amount of summer business during a Gorge Games year and a non-Gorge Games summer.

"The thing about the Gorge's food service is that we make all of our money in the summertime," Wood said. "We noticed a 20-percent decrease from our first year in 2002 when there was a Gorge Games to 2003 when there wasn't. And that was from our first year in business."

Last month's two sponsor acquisitions highlighted the results from the Gorge Games board's door-to-door fundraising campaign.

That effort attracted just four crusaders, not the 20 to 25 for which board member Karl Wells had hoped a week earlier.

Jane Nichols, Karl Wells, Rodger Schock and Mark Brown did raise $7,400 from their two-day tour of Hood River's downtown and the Heights.

"We're talking people who are being hit cold and who don't yet have the money," Nichols said. "They were most gracious."