For the Antigo Times

Live, love and laugh often would have been what Carrie Damos believed in, as well as work your butt off.

Ten years ago, our lives changed forever. Our niece Carrie, and her faithful dog Koda, were killed by a drunk driver.

In our pain, and also in our beautiful memories of such an amazing soul, we decided to do something amazing for others. It’s what she would do. We used to laugh and say, “What would Carrie do?”

And that’s when the Carrie Damos Memorial Scholarship Ride was born.

The first two years, we held the ride at the Desperado Ranch in Mountain. Friends of ours owned the ranch, and they were good enough to help us learn how to put the event together.

After the first two years, we moved it home to our farm. We opened our twenty-acre field for camping, and our big barn for dinner and raffle gifts, and the rest is history!

Each year, we have invited horse riders from all over (mostly Wisconsin and Michigan) for a three-day camp out to ride the beautiful trails of the Nicolet National Forest, with a trail feed at the half-way point on Saturday, and supper is held at our farm in the evening. In past years, we’ve had karaoke and singers, and we will have karaoke again on Saturday evening as well. Each day, riders are able to go out at their leisure and ride a one-hour loop, a two-hour loop, a three-hour loop or all three, and make their day what they want it to be. The trails are marked, so no one gets lost.

We have been blessed to have some food sponsors, as well as gift sponsors, to help us raise money for a scholarship fund. Our scholarship is exclusively for equine related activities and schooling.

Because Carrie was a great horse and animal lover, and was schooling to be a trainer, we designed the scholarship to be awarded to those with her same passion. We have been able to help pre-vet students, handicapped individuals take riding lessons, farriers, equine massage therapists and much more.

September 27-30, 2018 is our last time holding the Memorial Ride. We are ten years older, and with everyone’s help have accomplished enough to put away scholarship money for many years to come.

For more information on the ride or scholarships, search Carrie Damos Memorial Trail Ride on Facebook.