WELLSBORO - The local team traveling with the Fireball Run Adventurally Northern Exposure when it stopped here Monday was called Visittiogapa.
The driver was Tioga County Commissioner Mark Hamilton and the navigator was Jim Meade. Like all the teams they represented a missing child.
Their child was identified as Destin Nixon-NcKesson.
Hamilton filled in when original driver Nelle Rounsaville was unable to fulfill her commitment and said he was "honored" when the county visitor's bureau called and asked him to drive the 2012 Ford Escape in Universal Studio's sixth season of Fireball Run, "Northern Exposure" the race to recover American's missing children.
Fireball Run is an interactive road rally in which 40 teams travel through 15 cities and cover more than 2,500 miles, starting at Independence, Ohio, Saturday and ending in Maine this coming Saturday.
In each destination city, teams participate in a scavenger hunt where they are provided with clues to complete missions specific to the local area in a timely fashion for points. To navigate the route and score, teams will use everything at their disposal to solve the provided clues.
Hamilton said his mission included a stop at a local store to purchase three board games appropriate for kids 5 to 7 years old.
He and Meade also had to purchase sheets, drive to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon and dress in togas made from the sheets, with photographic proof. All items were to be donated to charity.
Event Executive Vice President David Hickman, who drove his own vehicle along the route, said one of the missing children, Team 99's sponsored child, Cassidy Cleveland, 14, of Mills, Ohio, had been found, bringing the total to 39 missing children found since the event began six years ago.
Among the celebrity drivers is Astronaut Jon McBride, who piloted the space shuttle Challenger in 1984 and serves as director of Astronaut Education Programs at Kennedy Space Center.
Fireball Run will leave Wellsboro this morning.
