A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Swim, Bike, Run for a Cure: Annual Trifest for MS

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TriFest for MS began when Jo Rampey, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, set out to complete a personal triathlon, sparking a movement that has since raised nearly $900,000 for MS research. 

What started as a private challenge became a beloved Labor Day weekend tradition in Bentonville, drawing hundreds to celebrate determination and community. Held in an urban setting with a pool swim start, TriFest is accessible for first-timers yet competitive enough for seasoned athletes. From kids' races to corporate challenges and the inspiring Super Sprint, every event is wrapped in an atmosphere of encouragement and hope.

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Natalie Stika:

Welcome back to A New American Town. I'm your host, natalie, with Visit Bentonville. If you're looking for a meaningful way to challenge yourself, connect with your community or simply get inspired this summer, this episode is for you. We're diving into one of Bentonville's most beloved and impactful annual events happening Labor Day weekend the TriFest for MS, a three-day triathlon that brings together athletes of all levels, families, volunteers, corporate teams and supports, all with one big goal to help fund research for multiple sclerosis. Now it's in its 14th year.

Natalie Stika:

Trifest for MS is more than a race. It's a movement that starts in the pool and ends on the pavement and reaches all the way to the real progress in the fight against MS. Whether you're a first-time triathlete, a parent looking for an event, your kids can safely enjoy. A business leader building a team or someone just curious about what makes this weekend so special, you're going to love this conversation. A team or someone just curious about what makes this weekend so special, you're going to love this conversation. Today, I'm joined by Scott Rampey, the heart behind TriFest for MS, to talk about how this event got started, why it's so unique and how you can get involved, in big ways or small. Let's get into it. Thanks for joining us, scott.

Scott Rampy:

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Scott Rampy:

Yeah, absolutely so for those who are not familiar, just baseline. Can you tell me more about Trifes for MS? Well, trifes for MS started out of a desire for Joe, my means. She has periods of great health, periods of not so great health and a period of great health. She wanted to do a triathlon and she started training to learn how to swim more efficiently.

Scott Rampy:

And she and I at the time thought we were just going to do a triathlon, just privately, just the two of us, on Labor Day, monday, and several of my friends ended up finding out about it, watching her swim in the pool, seeing her show up every day to, you know, work out and train.

Scott Rampy:

And the word got out and things started happening behind the scenes. And so when she showed up for what she thought was just she and I, there was about 250 people at the pool waiting for her. A lot of my friends had planned this thing. Behind the scenes were there Police, fire, news crews, and her reaction when we pulled up was hey, we can't do our triathlon, there's something going on here today. And I said well, honey, what's going on? Is you? This is all for your triathlon. So that's really the essence of how the TriFest for MS started from Jo's seeking her own finish line. So when she crossed that finish line that day, our daughter, alexandra, presented a check for $1,000 seed money to start our foundation and now, 14 years later, close to $900,000,. We've been funding research around the country and mostly in the state of Arkansas.

Natalie Stika:

Wow, that story is amazing.

Scott Rampy:

Thank you for sharing that. Oh yeah.

Natalie Stika:

I was going to ask why it's in a pool. Was there ever any?

Scott Rampy:

inkling to take it out of a pool. Over the years we've talked several times about going to a lake. I would say one of the unique features of the Tri-Fest that it is a pool. Most triathlons if you've attended one or done one they're out in the middle of nowhere in a lake and you know a lot of people can't really see them or attend them. So the pool aspect, being an urban setting, is very unique to TriFest and people like the safety aspect of pool swimming. It's very safe to have a pool triathlon.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, it makes it so inclusive. Pool triathlon yeah, and spectators can.

Scott Rampy:

Yeah, yeah, spectators can watch their family from the pool to the bike to run and see them all day long, where, if it was at a lake or somewhere else remote, they wouldn't have that opportunity yeah, yeah, wow.

Natalie Stika:

So walk me through the whole three-day weekend. It started as one day, just labor day, and now it's three days.

Scott Rampy:

Yeah, three days Labor Day, weekend, it's always that weekend. Friday we dedicate just to kids only, and if TriFest was just a kids race on its own, it'd probably be one of the largest ones in the country. Wow, we will have close to 400 kids probably do this race on Friday, and we do it for ages 5 to 15. We include para triathletes, which are just kids with some condition, which maybe give them challenges, and we're a para-certified event, just meaning that we have a heart and a mindset to help anybody that wants to start the triathlon, help them finish the triathlon, so any type of kids can do the race 5 to 15 years old. To help anybody that wants to start the triathlon, help them finish the triathlon, so any type of kids can do the race 5 to 15 years old.

Scott Rampy:

And then Saturday we kick off the adult races and really it's 12 to 85 years of age or older. We have a morning swim or a morning triathlon. There's two races going on there. We're doing the corporate sprint distance triathlon along with the Olympic distance, which is a little longer distance for our age groupers those are just amateur people that do triathlon and then in the evening we have our age group sprint. Then, sunday morning, we come back with a short distance race called the super sprint, and the super sprint emulates the distance that Joe did, whatever that was, 14 years ago, and so we still honor that distance and do that on Sunday morning.

Natalie Stika:

Wow.

Scott Rampy:

Have we motivated you yet to sign up?

Natalie Stika:

Oh yeah, very much. So I am not a triathlete at all, but this is amazing you're our kind of people, yeah, so what, what, what would you say to someone that maybe is this is not their world at all, but obviously it's a really, really great cause and a great foundation that everyone wants to be a part of? What would you say to someone like that?

Scott Rampy:

Well, I say every year at the event when I do the kickoff to welcome everybody, that it's the best family reunion, labor Day weekend and it's disguised as a triathlon, but it's a very encouraging environment and I think the reason people come back from all over the country. We've had as many as 26 states represented over the years and people just say it's such an encouraging environment. I know that sounds like a cliche, but every year you just feel the sense of encouragement. I don't care if you're a professional Olympic caliber racer or a first-time person who's never done this before. You're going to be encouraged from the start to the end and just when you cross that finish line, not only accomplish a triathlon, but you're going to be so empowered to accomplish other things in your life. And we hear that every year from people that come up to me or Joe after the weekend and say you know, this was an amazing experience.

Scott Rampy:

You know this is going to change my life, or it has changed my life, and so that's why I would tell you to sign up.

Natalie Stika:

I love that. It's a good scene to host this kind of event too, because I feel like our culture is very much so encouraging trying your best, becoming the best version of yourself, and so I love that because it just feels like it meshes so well with our community and our culture. How many people are you guys expecting this year?

Scott Rampy:

I suspect we'll be at about a thousand people. We've had as many as 1,350. I think our highest was in 2019. Of course, the COVID years kind of affected the numbers a little bit, but we've always exceeded a thousand people. So we're expecting that we'll probably at least be at that number.

Natalie Stika:

Well, outside of the triathlon, why do you think that a lot of these families or individuals, couples, whoever comes, why do you think they keep coming back and coming to stay in Bentonville and explore our community more?

Scott Rampy:

Well, I think the event is really fun to begin with.

Scott Rampy:

Triathlon is fun, I mean, it shouldn't all, it shouldn't be just hard, it's also fun.

Scott Rampy:

And I also think that people come back every year because they really feel that they're helping us make an impact on research.

Scott Rampy:

And we talk about it every year during the event, how their dollars, that they're giving to us through registrations and through corporate sponsorships, how we use that money to fund research. And you know we're a small nonprofit but we're really trying to make a world impact with the disease at UAMS in Little Rock, northwestern up in Chicago and University of California in San Francisco. The three of those folks have their hands in three to five clinical trials that we believe, as an organization, is going to have their fingerprints on a cure someday soon. And so I think people really get a sense that the dollars they're donating to us through registration or sponsorship is really impacting research and they can see it, they can feel it, and I think that's different than just, you know, maybe donating to a cause that you're not immediately impacted by or involved in. We have so many people doing the race that actually have autoimmune disease or multiple sclerosis themselves. We don't track what that number is, but we know it's very high. That's so encouraging.

Natalie Stika:

So people feel like they're impacting the disease. Yeah, wow, the fact that people of all different abilities can come and experience it and be a part of something bigger than themselves and not only donate to something bigger than themselves, but be a part of it that is amazing and so needed and I just love that. I love talking to you about it. You mentioned the corporate side a couple times. I really want to dive into the corporate events, all the things that happen there, because I'm just familiar with it now.

Scott Rampy:

Okay, well, we partnered with Celebrate Arkansas Magazine in town there, and about 10 years ago they came up with the idea of getting the corporate community more involved in an organized competition. So we have its own separate division now where these corporate teams you know, bentonville is very competitive if you're a supplier managing a Walmart business or other retailers and so the whole mindset was to bring that competitive spirit that people have in the boardroom or the supplier room and bring that competitive nature to a triathlon. So every year we have about 30 to 35 teams that compete against each other, along with the walmart uh corporate teams, and they get very serious about trying to win the traveling trophy that ends up going back to their office for bragging rights for the the entire year, and so any corporate team can join. We have an educators cup division, which is for schools and colleges. So they have their own division for competing for the Educators Cup and then the corporate side is competing for the corporate trophy and it just takes three team members.

Scott Rampy:

You have to have a swimmer, a biker, a runner, one female. They all have to be employees of the company or a family member of an employee. You can be as young as 13 in that case, and you know, they compete in the sprint distance, which is 400 meter swim, 15 mile bike and a 5K run, and last year, I think, tyson won. They took the trophy from Walmart the previous year.

Natalie Stika:

A Northwest Arkansas battle?

Scott Rampy:

Yes exactly Wow.

Natalie Stika:

Do you feel like a lot of those corporate teams are mostly local or are they coming from the rest of the US?

Scott Rampy:

They're mostly local, but some of the members actually fly in for it. Oh cool. That's a small percentage, but some of the larger CPG teams do get their corporate offices involved from wherever they reside, and it's just a fun, fun time. Jennifer Baumhauer is our VP of the amendment at Walmart, who's the chair of the event. She hands out the trophy to the winning team and you know we give a sportsmanship award too, other than just a championship, and it's just a fun, unique way to celebrate competitiveness and a cause in a corporate setting. So we always say it's the crossroad of cause, corporation and competition.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, that's good. So I have a burning question. Yeah, do you participate in it?

Scott Rampy:

Well, that is an interesting question. We have participated over the years, joe and I have done a relay. We've done that twice, I think, in the Super Sprint Division, but I personally have not done it as an individual, and every year somebody asks me me is this going to be the year that you do it? But there's so many moving parts that yeah, I'm not I'm not the official race director.

Scott Rampy:

Uh, ruse hotkins handles that uh heavy task. But there's so many other jobs that I'm running around managing that I feel like I'm I'm doing a triathlon, just not oh yeah, the not the front bike running part.

Natalie Stika:

Definitely yeah With how big it's grown. I was not expecting it to be of recent years, but yeah, that's awesome. What are you most looking forward to about the TriFast for MST this year?

Scott Rampy:

You know, every year, to me, the beauty of it is just seeing people that have come back year after year after year, and we have some people that have done this 14 years in a row. We have families that come every year and they make it their. You know, I said family reunion. They really make it their family reunion. Our families, my family, joe's family we'll have probably 40 people in town for this weekend. So to me it's the friends and family, reconnecting those relationships and, you know, doing it at Tri-Fest is just awesome way to experience the weekend.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, it sounds like a fabulous way and to kind of end off the summer, Labor Day weekend is a great cap off to the school year.

Scott Rampy:

Yeah, it's like the end of the summer, you know. Kids are getting ready to go back to school, and what better way to end it with a crescendo of doing a triathlon?

Natalie Stika:

Seriously, yeah. Last question I wanted to ask If someone's listening and maybe they aren't able to come, or they aren't necessarily ready yet, since it's already June and this is coming up, how can they donate, how can they get involved?

Scott Rampy:

Well, there's so many ways to get involved with our organization. Tri-fest is just one of six events that we put on throughout the year. It's obviously the biggest one, the one that people know us for, but you can go to our website, researchmsorg. You can see all the other events that we're involved with. But someone can volunteer that we call volunteers at tri-fest encouragers, and we get a lot of high marks from people that do the race about our volunteers because they're so encouraging and so loud and they yell and cheer and it takes about 250 volunteers to put on the event that weekend. So you can sign up as a volunteer. We would love to have you. You can donate.

Scott Rampy:

Tri-fest for us is an awesome event but it's a very expensive event to put on. So someone could donate if they wanted to and I would encourage people to. If you're on the fence, to register and sign up. We have a training series that starts July 28th in Bentonville at the pool. You would swim the race in. It's four weeks. We train you on how to swim, how to do the bike, how to do the run, we train you on how to swim, how to do the bike, how to do the run, and then on the fourth week, on Saturday August 16th, I think, we actually line up and you will do a real triathlon before the real one, on Labor Day weekend, and all that is on our website at researchmsorg.

Natalie Stika:

This is amazing because, like an hour ago, I was talking to a friend about how we could do this.

Scott Rampy:

Yeah, we could do it. We train 10 to 20 people a year. We train to get them ready for this. It's such a fun kind of takes the mystery and the scariness away of doing a triathlon just learning how to do it in a friendly, fun environment.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, in closing, what do you always hope, whether it's a kid, an elder, a mom, a dad, anyone. What do you really hope that people take away from this experience?

Scott Rampy:

man. I hope they just feel empowered when they cross the finish line. I hope they feel empowered, um, or whatever is going on in their life. I I always say at the event, because when people register, we ask a bunch of questions about you know, why did you register, what was your motivation? And I'm always amazed at what people will share as to why they're doing this. And there's, you know, a lot of crazy things going on in people's lives health-wise, addiction-wise, relationship-wise and it feels like when they cross that finish line, that barrier has been broken or busted for them to achieving other things in their life. And I'm not just making that up, those are words I hear from people that do the racing.

Scott Rampy:

That tells me and Joe that this event is going to catapult them to bigger things in their life, because it was just such an empowering experience. So that's the thing I think people, that I hope people take away from it.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, I totally believe that that's amazing and I love how much it transforms people's lives. Well, we're so excited for it to come back for another year. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation today. Scott, I have too. Thank you very much for hosting us. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation today, scott, I have too.

Scott Rampy:

Thank you very much for hosting us.

Natalie Stika:

Yeah, thank you. Anyone listening, don't forget, visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Check out the show notes to follow us on social, sign up for our newsletter and check out our website.