OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE VIRGINIA MOSQUITO CONTROL ASSOCIATION
2023 Tour de Skeeter
On October 21, VMCA’s Student Competition Committee (SCC) hosted its 5th annual Tour de Skeeter (TdS) fundraising event. As usual, this event was a huge success for the SCC. We had 23 participants registered and 4 sponsorships from VMCA sustaining members. After expenses, we raised over $550!
Due to rain, our original weekend planned for the event (October 14) was washed out. Luckily, we had beautiful October weather for our backup weekend on the 21st; crisp morning air, sunny afternoon, and a nice breeze throughout the day. Sadly, not everyone was able to join us on the rescheduled date, but those that did had a great time. As usual, we all arrived at different locations along the Capital Trail to bike/walk and enjoy the autumn weather. At lunchtime, we all met at Cul’s Courthouse Grille across from the Charles City Courthouse. Cul’s was an excellent choice this year; delicious food, diverse selection of drinks, and a fantastic outdoor patio for the group.
I would like to thank all that contributed to this event: SCC committee members, TdS participants/registers, Cul’s, and especially Karen Akaratovic for putting this all together. I would like to send out a huge thank you to the sustaining members that made this event possible: Steve Molnar with Target Specialty Products, Jeff Hottenstein with Clarke, Dan McCombie with Azelis, and Jeff O’Neill with Central Life Sciences. Sponsorships were used to purchase shirts, prizes, and food for the participants, while event registration fees help facilitate future VMCA student competitions.
Join us for our upcoming 6th annual event in October 2024!
Check out all the details over on the 2024 Tour de Skeeter Page.
2022 Tour de Skeeter
Thanks to all who sponsored, registered, donated, and participated in the 4th annual Tour de Skeeter! We appreciate all of you!
"After hosting the 2021 Tour de Skeeter (TdS) in scorching hot June temperatures, we decided to host our 2022 event during a cool autumn October. As luck would have it, October gave us fantastic weather; brisk morning temperatures for an early ride, and a beautiful high of 77° afternoon for drinks on the lawn. VMCA’s Student Competition Committee (SCC) hosted its 4th annual TdS fundraising event on October 15, 2022. Like the previous 3 years, we all gathered at Indian Fields Tavern off the Virginia Capital Trail in Charles City. Many participants parked at the tavern and walked and biked on the nearby trail, while others parked in Richmond or Jamestown and enjoyed a longer bike ride.
Each year, the TdS event gets bigger and bigger. In 2022, we had our largest event yet with 44 registrations and 4 vendor sponsorships (ADAPCO, Central Life Sciences, Clarke, and Target). During the event itself, we had 37 human attendees and 5 puppies (some were even dressed in TdS apparel). After expenses, this event raised close to $940. With the steady increase of yearly fundraising, SCC has been able to include additional prizes for our student poster competition. I want to thank everyone that supported our event this year and in years past. We couldn’t keep our competition going without you. I also want to thank Karen Akaratovic for putting this event together; fantastic as always!
Like the 2021 TdS, we continued the tradition of raffling off a $200 Amazon gift card. All adult registrations (full or late) were entered into the drawing. After the group photograph, a name was drawn from the bucket; Jim Chamberlain was our winner (Karen’s dad). Congratulations Jim!"
-SCC Chair Jay Kiser
Join us for our upcoming 5th annual event in October 2023!
Check out all the details over on the 2023 Tour de Skeeter Page.
A huge thank-you to our 2022 sponsors!
A huge thank-you to our 2021 sponsors!
Thank you, 2020 Sponsors!
Inaugural Tour de Skeeter
Fundraiser to benefit the SCC Poster Competition Award
The VMCA Student Competition Committee held its inaugural Tour de Skeeter on Saturday, June 22, 2019 kicking off National Mosquito Control Awareness Week (June 23-29). It was a beautiful day for bike-riding with a nice breeze and a high temperature around 80 degrees. A total of 30 people and 4 kids signed up and about half were actually able to make the trip and bike some amount of the trail.
One group (Jay Kiser- Suffolk Mosquito Control and 2 friends) rode from Jamestown to Richmond on Friday night and then rode down to the tavern Saturday morning with Michael Rollins of Prince William County and Ryan Levering of Henrico County. Another group (Lisa Wagenbrenner- Chesapeake Mosquito Control and Tim DuBois- Portsmouth Mosquito Control with wife and friend) rode up from Jamestown to the tavern. The final group (Karen Akaratovic- Suffolk Mosquito Control and Penny Smelser- Norfolk Mosquito Control, both with their families) parked at the tavern and rode a few miles north and back. Ann Herring of Suffolk Mosquito Control graciously volunteered to be the emergency support person and was stationed at the tavern. Although some of us felt pretty exhausted at the end, luckily no one had a catastrophic issue. Everyone met up at the Indian Fields Tavern to relax and socialize for a couple hours. The tavern supplied some delicious appetizers and everyone had a great time playing corn hole and Frisbee while the kids played with bubbles, chalk, and a good old-fashioned game of tag. Afterwards everyone left on their separate ways, some had people pick them up and others rode back to their original starting point.
Next year, there are a few things the committee would like to do differently. For one, we would like to get the word out about the event a little earlier. This year we were only able to give regular registration a 2 week notice. Getting set up took a fair amount of planning with more details than any of us realized, so it took us a while to get the ball rolling. Secondly, we would like to better organize riding groups if possible. This happened pretty last minute for most people but fixing this will come with getting the announcement/registration deadline out earlier. A third point worth considering is setting up different locations for the event. For example, if people in the northern or western areas of Virginia were interested in participating but not wanting to make the drive down to the Lower Peninsula for the Capital Trail, perhaps we could set up another trail or two in different areas. This would require some help from committee members or volunteers in these areas but is definitely something the committee is willing to explore if there is interest. Finally, several people suggested making the event an overnight/weekend long activity via campgrounds. The Chickahominy Riverfront Park at mile marker 7 could be a great location for such a proposal with over 120 campsites, boat access/rentals, fishing, walking trails, playground and pool, and many other features.
A huge thank-you goes out to Ted Bean with Adapco, Jeff O’Neill with Central Life Sciences, Zach Cohen with Summit Chemical, and Jim Andrews with Valent Biosciences who all sponsored the event so that we could purchase items (t-shirt, water bottle, tick spoon, etc.) to give to the participants and order food for the break time. Without their support, we would not have been able to raise as much money as we did, which was a total just shy of $300!
Thank you, 2019 Sponsors!
