Kathleen "Kat" Davis concentrates on her dart game, the third and final event of the Girls Bar Triathlon. Held on Martin Luther King day, the triathlon is an annual fundraiser to benefit local charities.
One group of Carson City women spent their holiday raising the bar, by raising their glasses.
The Girls Bar Triathlon held its 6th annual Martin Luther King Day bar crawl to raise money for local charities. The 20 women visited three local bars — MJ’s Sports Bar, Crossroads Lounge and Ed’s Doghouse — to compete in a variety of events and raising money for charity.
“We started this with just six of us, because we needed something to do (on the day off) and decided to go to the different bars and try different things,” said Cheryl Mathwig, organizer of the crawl. “It started with six of us, then word spread and now it has turned into friends of friends and customers (joining us) now.”
At each bar, the women play pool, shuffleboard or darts, and compete with each other to be No. 1. Each participant has a $10 buy in, plus additional donations from the bars, which all go to charity. The tournament winners choose which charity the money goes to that year.
“It is a great idea to have the winners pick the charity, because there have been some great ones they have picked over the years,” said Ed Byrne, owner of Ed’s Doghouse.
Clad in blue T-shirts with “Girls Bar Triathlon” across them in white, the 22 women hung around Ed’s Doghouse Monday afternoon, throwing darts, drinking and enjoying each other’s company.
“It is all about the camaraderie,” Mathwig said. “We come together and make it a day and just hang out together. We really enjoy it, it is just so much fun.”
It’s a girls night out — in the middle of the day — but that’s just fine with the bar triathletes.
“My favorite part is all the estrogen in the room,” laughed Kim Craft. Craft traveled all the way from Placerville to join in the bar crawl.
“It is just a blessing, having 20 girls here having a good time,” said Byrne. “Girls need to have their girls’ night.”
Byrne said the event is also successful because none of the women over drink during the crawl and everyone makes sure all participants get home safely.
This was the first year for Kathleen “Kat” Davis and she was more than ecstatic to be participating in the event.
“Oh my gosh, it is so much fun,” Davis said. “I have known all these ladies for a long time, and it is just great. It is fun, it’s for charity and it’s a good day out with the girls.”
This year, the crawl raised $820, which was donated to Alzheimer charities.
