6th Gurney Turney Getting Ready to Roll

The sixth annual Gurney Turney is scheduled Sept. 18 in the Ventura Harbor Village parking lot. The 1-mile bed race is a fund-raising event for the Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Assn. to provide grief counseling for youth.

“We were looking for something unique in terms of a fund-raising,” said Suzanne Lewis, special events coordinator for the association.

The concept has been a hit--more than $50,000 has been raised through entry fees and donations over the past four years.

The funds enable the nonprofit association to provide free counseling to students who have lost a family member, friend or classmate.

The association was founded in 1947 to provide health care to the homebound regardless of ability to pay.

It is now a United Way agency, based in Ventura.

Hospice services are funded through grants and donations; the Gurney Turney makes the youth program possible.

In the race, four people push a bed and one person rides on top, holding a pan of water.

The Oxnard and Ventura SWAT teams have already entered this year’s race, with Ventura Mayor Jim Friedman the designated rider, Lewis said.

The entry fee is $300 per team, but corporate groups will sponsor willing team members, Lewis said. To form a team, call 642-0239, Ext. 766.