400 course through Belton in annual Spartacus Dash

ASCO Equipment of Belton held their 5th annual ASCO Spartacus Dash at Belton's Confederate Park May 28. Four hundred participants ranging from 5 to 60-years-old battled the 5K course through obstacles to include zip-line, mud pit, pipe and tunnel crawls, and a slip-n-slide. The course stretched among Nolan Creek, around The Courthouse Square, and back to Confederate Park. The finish line, decorated with the smiles of each participant's accomplishment and the sounds of admiration from spectators, held the gold award desired by all.

“It was great. This is my first year running. There was a spot where I had to the required Bur-pees. It was a wonderful course and experience,” said Kim Gregory of Stain & Stamp.

According to ascoeq.com, ASCO is the oldest material machinery and construction equipment dealership under continuous single-family ownership in West Texas. The company works with more than 500 other company members from 22 locations in Beaumont, Lubbock, Amarillo, Odessa, Perryton, Midland, Clovis, Wichita Falls, Houston, Abilene, Euless, San Angelo, Sherman, San Antonio, Tyler, Austin, Bryan, and Brenham to form the team. The purpose of ASCO is to be a blessing to their employees and families by providing them a standard of living and an opportunity for growth and self-improvement well above the norm, to provide “Continually improving” superior, ethical, service to all ASCO customers that exceeds their expectations and what the competition can provide, and to be a good corporate citizen continually involved in community philanthropic causes. The company's core values are honor God, develop people, pursue excellence, and grow profitably.

“It is a tradition of ASCO that each branch is charged with holding some sort of charity event to raise money for a local organization. Once each branch has successfully completed their event, all money raised from all branches are combined and ASCO matches it dollar-for-dollar. This year was different in the fact that each branch got to choose a charity that was local. Our branch chose AWARE, “ said ASCO Branch Manager Spencer Ridgway.

According to awarecentraltexas.org, AWARE was formerly Family Outreach of Bell County. It was started in 1986 as the volunteer arm of Child Protective Services of Bell County. The purpose of the agency was to assist in the prevention of child abuse and neglect in high-risk families. AWARE is the only agency in the region that is solely focused on prevention. The agency believes that education is the key to prevention and prevention is the way to diminish the shamefully high rate of child abuse and/or neglect and family violence in our area. Their mission is the prevention of child abuse, neglect, and family violence.

Past charities have included The Children's Miracle Network, A Soldier's Child, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with the average donation of $12,000. Academy, T3, Jersey Mike's, Schlotzsky's,, Gatti's Pizza, Stain & Stamp, The Kitchen Mechanic, and MW Builders were among the sponsors that helped make this year's dash a huge success.

For more information on ASCO, please visit www.ascoeq.com. For more information on AWARE, please visit www.awarecentraltexas.org.