Wash Me!

The 3rd Annual Carr's Wash 4 Kids was held today at Michigan Stadium this afternoon and the event appeared to be very successful. It was great weather for it and the team was highly efficient in getting the cars through the line. This was the first time I had ever attended Carr's Wash 4 Kids and I was impressed with how they have this process down to a science. The other thing that struck me is that although the players were obviously having a lot of fun the coaches were still "on top" of the players even at an event such as this car wash. The event ran from 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. and I arrived at almost exactly 1:30 p.m. and there was a steady stream of cars but no waiting. What follows is a blow-by-blow (or wash-by-wash) description of my somewhat surreal trip down the Carr Wash line:

• I pulled into the Stadium concourse through Gate 9 (North endzone) and headed for the east side of the stadium. I was immediately welcomed by Scott Draper (Assistant Athletic Director) who thanked us for coming and who sent me up the concourse to a bevy of helpful volunteers to part with my charitable contribution.
• Charitable contributions could be any amount but $25 got you a t-shirt w/ your car wash while $50 got you a hat, t-shirt and your car wash. I decided to be a big spender and give $50 meaning I got a hat and what they said was the last XL t-shirt.
• While driving on to the next station, I saw a series of signs that instructed patrons to "Please stay in their cars." I figured (correctly it turns out) that I was not really going to get a chance to take photos.
• On my right was the WTKA radio broadcast platform and while I was still looking back at it all of a sudden my Jeep was getting blasted by water from hoses on each side of the vehicle while my window was still down from when I had paid. I had driven into the first station (the hose down station) without even realizing it. Johnny Sears was on the driver's side of my Jeep and he accidentally nailed me with water through the open window as he didn't realize my window was down. I was scrambling to put my window up while he was laughing when offensive coordinator Mike DeBord came over and he was fuming at both of us. Man, I tell you what. I was scared and this was just a car wash. You NEVER want to make Coach DeBord mad.
• Coach DeBord led me to the next station where all of a sudden 6-10 players descended on every square inch of my Jeep and soaped it from top to bottom. He then told me to drive up to the next station. The only problem was that I couldn't see out my front window.
• I drove crawling along to the next station where Alan Branch guided me to a stop. I kept thinking, oh great, I'm going to hit Alan Branch and he is going to be out for the year with an injury he suffered at the car wash because I couldn't see out my soapy window. However, I managed to stop in time. While the other players proceeded to wash the soap off my Jeep, Alan stayed in front of my vehicle and he started dancing to the music that was playing. It was a sight to behold!!! Alan Branch is 6'6", 330 lbs. and that man can move. Before we drove to the next station I bumped fists with him which I think he thought was a little dorky but he went with it. (*Photos of Alan Branch from The Wolverine)
• As we proceeded to the next station Coach Carr came up to the car and shook my hand and thanked us for coming and we then drove to the final station (towel dry).
• As the players were towel drying my car they started hooting on my passenger for wearing a MSU t-shirt so I rolled down my window and Assistant Head Coach Erik Campbell told the players not to dry the side of the car the MSU person was sitting on but that they could dry the driver's side of the vehicle. The players were laughing hysterically. They loved it.
• Before we left the concourse, we bought some lemonade (which was quite good) at a lemonade stand and waved to a few final players who thanked us for coming.

So there you have it. My 5 or so minutes through the Carr Wash. I would recommend it to someone who is considering attending next year but I would caution you that this is not an event where you will be able to take a lot of pictures. I didn't take any as I had my hands full with driving. Nevertheless, it was for a great cause and everyone had a lot of fun. Go Blue!

*Note: The photos used in this post are from The Wolverine. I used them because they are representative of what was going on when I got my Jeep washed. I did NOT take these pictures. If you want to see great pictures like these and read fantastic articles about Michigan sports you should subscribe to The Wolverine (Rivals.com).