Offbeat race based in Whitefish

Several employees of the Regis Corporation used Whitefish as base camp last month for their own version of "The Amazing Race."

Regis, the world's largest franchiser of hair salons, grooms members of its field and corporate staff with annual performance reviews, department meetings and team-building exercises to reward a year of hard work.

Whitefish area businesses hosted the Regis staffers as they teamed up in four groups of three and set out on a hair-raising course of 15 tasks including:

Serenading the good-humored employees of Ace Hardware with a verse of "You Are My Sunshine."

Finding the bar that's the home of the Kalispell Malting & Brewing Co. and getting the names of its five brews on tap (That stumped all but one of the teams.)

Tying a fly at Lakestream Flyfishing.

Blowing up a dog balloon at Imagination Station.

Bringing back a jar of huckleberry jam.

And "desperately seeking" an employee named Susan at the Whitefish Credit Union and naming all the stuffed animals surrounding her desk.

Regis employees descend on a different town for a week each year. Deb Nelson, director of Franchise Salon Services from the company's corporate office in Minneapolis, says the group puts together a list of possible spots for their annual trek.

One regional manager had worked at St. Mary Lodge near Glacier Park when she was younger and had visited Kalispell and Whitefish. She gave Whitefish a big pitch and it won out over other vacation hot spots such as Sonoma and Lake Tahoe, Calif.

Nelson praised the graciousness of all the Whitefish people they met as they planned their scavenger hunt. "They were absolutely fantastic, she says, "and I'm sure they thought we were nuts. Whitefish was the perfect place."

Local history buffs might be interested in knowing that from 1915-1919 the Kalispell Malting & Brewing Co. was located on Central Avenue, at the site of the watering hole now known as the Palace Bar.

Details can be found on one of downtown Whitefish's many building murals.

Those who buy items at the International Gift Festivals held twice a year at Mountain View Mennonite Church in Creston are often motivated to shop there because the items are fair trade, supporting artisans in developing countries.

But the Windows to the World organization that runs the gift festivals also tries to ensure that people's purchases go even further.

The committee recently decided to send $3,000 of profits from gift festival sales to Ten Thousand Villages, designated for the rebuilding of a sewing cooperative facility in Mumbai, India (formerly known as Bombay). Recent torrential rains, with parts of the city receiving 37 inches of rain in 24 hours, left the cooperative with five feet of water in its building.

The money will go toward the replacement of 20 sewing machines totaling $1,500 and 10 sewing-related machines for $850, as well as other repairs estimated at around $16,000.

The next gift festival will be Nov. 10-12. For more information, call 755-8772.