Whisky Tango. Mud Light. Bat Claw (formerly White Claw). The names conjure up images of friends raising a glass at a local bar.
But instead, picture the most impractical, unconventional vehicles you can imagine – some of which probably shouldn’t even be on the road – parked in a large field in the mountains of Central Oregon. Now add campers, tents, live music and hundreds of strangers and friends who can’t wait to get out on the dirt roads that cross the public lands – to collect trash.
That’s the Gambler 500: an annual off-road rally participant Aaron Ackerman dubbed “fun…with a cause.” And that fun is precisely what makes it so successful.
Thinking outside the box
When the event first started back in 2014, only 31 cars ran the timed off-road race for no other reason than the pure joy of it. Word spread, though, and the event grew quickly as more and more people showed up to join the fun.
The organizers had a thought: Why not harness the contagious energy of this ragtag group of car enthusiasts and outdoor lovers to do something bigger? Gambler 2.0 was born.
Playing the game
Gamblers and their families come together for the weekend in late June, setting up camp on borrowed land. The rules say their vehicles can’t be worth more than $500, so owners get pretty creative in how they embellish them. The wackier, the better. One Gambler even sheared off the top of an old clunker Buick and attached a boat to the top. Because why not? Let’s just say there’s a lot of duct tape and cable ties involved.
Starting early and communicating by portable radios, groups of three to six cars head out of camp to preset waypoints, picking up every piece of trash they see. The bigger, the better: abandoned barbed-wire rolls, old car parts, mattresses, and even boats or RVs. And if your path is blocked by a gate or overgrown nature? Even better, because you get to off-road around another way.
Participants bring their finds back to huge dumpsters lined up next to camp to be hauled away – but only after showing off the biggest of the trophy trash. You never know: you just might have something worthy of one of the coveted homemade, welded-metal awards at the end of the weekend.
Accepting everyone just as they are
If you’re new, all you need to do is “show up and pick a group and they’ll welcome you in,” according to Seth Rice, a curly blond-headed Gambler with a beard whose “Corolla Virus” beater looks terrible but is apparently a lot of fun to drive. “They won’t leave you behind…that’s just the Gambler way.”
As another Gambler put it, you can “let your freak flag fly” high while you’re taking care of the Earth. Costumes are optional.
“I’ve spent my whole life wandering around picking up trash,” reflected Jasmine White, decked out in a bright pink hoodie under black overalls with a bandana around her head. “And then I found a group of people that wander around picking up trash. It’s amazing. We really are making a difference.”
Building a tight-knit community
Gamblers span all ages and walks of life, coming together in their love of the outdoors and desire to preserve and protect the public land we all use for hiking, biking, hunting, travel and recreating. In jeans and t-shirts and sporting all varieties of long hair and beards, this group of rowdy characters is casual and real – they’re there to get dirty and work, not to impress.
As co-founder Tate Morgan says: “If we’re going to use the lands, we need to leave them better than we found them.”
In the decade since they started, Gambler events have spread across the country. They’ve even created a “Sons of Smokey” app that lets you be part of the mission even if you don’t participate in a Gambler weekend. If you see trash you can’t take with you while you’re out hiking a trail or biking on public land, you can mark the location on the app and include a picture and description. Someone else who sees it on the app can then pick it up while they’re off-roading in the area and mark the spot as cleaned up.
Making it fun
If you just ask people to come pick up trash, you might get a handful who show up to help out of guilt or obligation. But pair it with something people love to do, and they’ll come out of the woodwork to participate.
Rice summed it up best: “Being a true Gambler is caring about the environment, going out with a bunch of friends trying to have a good time, see new places and keep these places open for generations to come.”
Having a profound impact
Since 2014, more than 5,000 Gambler participants have removed 5.5 million pounds of trash from public property across America – nearly half of that in Oregon alone – making it the country’s largest public land cleanup, all without tax dollars. That’s impressive.
Regardless of their views about anything else in the world, Gamblers unite over trash and the shared desire to keep public land clean and available for everyone to use.
Whisky Tango, Mud Light, and Bat Claw may sound like bar drinks at first. But in the dust, duct tape, and lively atmosphere of a Gambler weekend, they become something more: proof that doing good does not have to look polished, predictable, or perfect.
Sometimes the best way to make a difference is to show up exactly as you are, bring what you love, invite others along for the ride, and have as much fun as possible while leaving the world a little better than you found it.
Please share this post with your people and remember: You matter. But let the REAL you to show up – with all your quirks and imperfections. It’s that version of you that’s going to make the biggest difference out in the world!
(Photo/KUOW Matt Martin)
