2008 McCullough Scottish Games Highlights
Cloudy and threatening skies and temperatures above 60F welcomed the second annual McCullough Scottish Games, on Saturday, October 25th. Warmed by the expert piping of Franklin McQuay, our athletes and all our enthusiastic onlookers hung in there through the eventual rain and wind during this afternoon of competition. In all, 55 people took part in this celebration of Highland games, a gathering of friends and family.
Our opening remarks were reminiscent of Mel Gibson's Braveheart as Mike delivered the famous Stirling battle speech, which we record here for your remembrance:
"Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyrrany. You've come to fight as free men and free men you are.
What will you do with your freedom? Will you fight? (at this point Chuckie McHaggis answers "Against that? No! We will run and we will live"
Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live, at least for awhile. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM! Alba gu brath! Alba gu brath!
This was met by a rousing chorus of Alba gu brath! from our athletes and attendees, who were duly roused by the unexpected and somewhat realistic motivational speech. Certainly we had fun with this. This gathering for 2008 was also envisioned as a charity event to support the ministry of Compassion International, a Christ-centered outreach of humanitarian aid to children and their communities in Latin America, Mexico, the Caribean, and S. America.
Now for the greatest news! The fantastically generous giving of those who attended the games and our post-game concert combined for a gift from cash contributions and 15% of ticket sales for a grand total of $373 for Compassion. To put this in perspective, this is more than enough funds to support one child for a year. We have earmarked this gift for a small community of the Dominican Republic, home of the Franco family, whose youngest child, Julidelis, is under Compassion's support program.
THANK YOU !!
From us, for supporting this year's effort and for the Franco family and all the families of their community who will benefit from your generosity.
As the director of these Games I extend my thanks to my fellow competitors, Paul McCullough Chuck Trader, Aaron Stout and Chris Mitchum for taking up the challenge and sticking with their commitment to participate, and to our lady competitors, Kathy Taylor and Jeannie McCullough for stepping up to show that ladies can do Highland events, too!
Others deserving of our recognition and thanks are:
my wife, Robin, for her steadfast assistance in the preparations for these Games and in supporting the vision,
to our parking attendants, Dan and Eric McCullough and Krista Schmid,
to Franklin McQuay who always comes prepared to look and pipe the part for us on Game day,
to David and Margaret Young for offering us parking space on their property
(the Brits came through again!, just like last year),
to those who gave of their time and talent to record the events of the day on camera, namely Patrick Vadnais, Stefan Koslowski and Krista Schmid,
to Colleen Craven for giving of her time the day before the Games for set-up,
to Kathy Taylor whose canopy kept many as dry as could be expected,
to Fred Limback who grilled and Rich Taylor and Dave McCullough who jumped in to help,
to Cori Ashton and family whose loan of canopies, tables, coolers, etc. was indispensible in serving our guests,
to Chuck and Miriam Trader and Harry and Dorothy McCullough for their support,
to Jeannie McCullough and Frank Napfel who assisted with scorekeeping,
to the ladies who helped both to warm our food inside and serving it when the outside conditions became intolerable, and
to all you who attended to make a challenging time together memorable.
Event Results | Kathy | Jeannie | Mike | Chuck | Paul | Chris | Aaron |
L. Sheaf | 12 ft | 11 ft | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
score | 1 | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
L. Braemar (6# stone) | 21 ft 4 in | 22 ft 4 in | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
score | 2 | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
L. Caber | 12 oc | 12 oc | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
score | 1 | 1 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Ladies total | 3 | 3 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Braemar (15# stone) | -- | -- | 21 ft 1 in | 26 ft 9 in | 23 ft 11 in | 28 ft 6 in | 23 ft 7 in |
score | -- | -- | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
WOB (35#) | -- | -- | 11 ft 6 in | 11 ft 6 in | 11 ft 6 in | 12 ft 6 in | 9 ft 0 in |
score | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Sheaf | -- | -- | 15 ft | 13 ft | 17 ft | 17 ft | 13 ft |
score | -- | -- | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
S4H (42# stone) | -- | -- | 9 ft 0 in | 9 ft 0 in | 9 ft 0 in | 9 ft 6 in | -- |
score | -- | -- | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Caber | -- | -- | 12:05(S) 225 | 12 oc(S) 241 | 12 oc(S) 241 | 12 oc(S) 241 | 12 oc(S) 241 |
score | -- | -- | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Men's Total | -- | -- | 13 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 15 |
Ladies tied 3 pts each, Men's winner was Chris Mitchum with 5 pts and Paul McCullough was runner-up with 9 pts. Congrats to all, as each came out to do their best. You all showed up and gave it all you had!
Alba Gu Brath,
Mike McCullough, Sola Deo Gloria