The letter, short and to the point, says it all.

Dated May 11, 1977, it was written to Jenny Sheldon by one of the most influential visionaries in the history of Bend, Bill Healy. He was congratulating Sheldon on her organization of a first-time event called the “Pole Pedal Paddle.”

Part of the letter reads: “It looks as though it was so successful that you may have created a monster. I’m proud of you!”

Healy, who nearly 20 years earlier had founded what is now the Mt. Bachelor ski area, was onto something. That first PPP drew about 65 participants.

This Saturday, more than 3,000 skiers, cyclists, runners and paddlers from Central Oregon and far beyond will take part in the 35th edition of the U.S. Bank Pole Pedal Paddle — a race that all started with the vision of Bend residents Dave and Jenny Sheldon.

The map, also short and to the point, explains it all.

Sketched rather rudimentarily by Dave Sheldon in the spring of 1977, the map includes two skiers, a cyclist and a canoeist along the original PPP course from Mount Bachelor to Bend.

The PPP has become more than just the region’s signature multisport race. It has evolved into an annual celebration of all things Central Oregon: The mountain, the road, the trail, the river — even the beer.

Today, teams of racers mix with other teams to form one boisterous post-race gathering at the finish in Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater.

That celebration lives long into the night at house parties, bars and everywhere throughout Bend.

They all have their reasons for racing and reveling. Many race in honor of loved ones who have passed on.

Hundreds will be racing for Dave Sheldon on Saturday, including his wife and kids.

Sheldon was found dead on Dec. 14 in his van, parked in a rural area near the North Umpqua River in Douglas County. Strong winds toppled a large tree, which crushed the van. He commuted a few days each week to his job in the Roseburg area and apparently had parked the van in the woods for the evening to sleep there rather than commute home after a long day at work. He was 57.

For 18 years, Dave Sheldon worked as a contractor for Romtec, a Roseburg-based company that designs and builds public restrooms, concession stands, ticket booths, park shelters and other facilities.

But most folks in Bend knew him as a board member for the Central Oregon Environmental Center, or for his role as Don Quixote in a 2006 Cascades Theatrical Company production of “Man of La Mancha.” He was also a talented guitarist, pianist and singer who performed with a band.

The Sheldons raised three children in Bend, all of them now in their 20s.

Still coping with the sudden and shocking loss of her husband five months later, Jenny Sheldon, 59, sat at her kitchen table this week amid a pile of PPP memorabilia from the race’s early days: the letter from Healy, Dave’s map drawing, old promotional posters, the original PPP mugs awarded to top finishers.

Racing to honor family

Recounting those days and the special times with her husband seemed to help ease the pain. She hopes racing on Saturday with her family will have the same effect.

“The only thing I’ve thought is that it’s going to be hard,” she said of the emotional strain. “I think we’ve got a team together, we hope.”

Jenny, a longtime teacher and coach who is now a trainer in the martial art of tai chi, plans to take on the 1 1/2-mile kayak along the Deschutes River. Her daughter, Katie, 29, will ski the downhill and pedal the 22-mile bike ride, and her other daughter, Lisa, 24, is planning to race the five-mile run. A niece from Los Angeles will handle the eight-kilometer cross-country ski. Jenny’s son, Nathan, 27, will also be in town.

The team’s name is “All Together Now.”

Since she decided to race, Jenny said she has talked with several PPP participants who said they enter the event every year to honor a friend or family member who has died.

“I’ve met quite a few people who are putting together a team, who haven’t done it for a long time, just because of Dave,” Jenny said. “I know there’s people that are doing it, like us, who are totally out of shape. It’s crazy, but they’re just doing it because they should.”

Dave, a surfer who was born and raised in Coos Bay on the Oregon Coast, and Jenny, a skier who grew up near Lake Tahoe, met at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland.

They traveled the world together after college, including trips to Hawaii, New Zealand and Samoa.

They stayed for awhile in the ski town of Jackson, Wyo.

“We really were just on a mission to surf and ski,” Jenny recalled.

While in Jackson, Jenny finished second in the original Pole Pedal Paddle race. The event, which recently celebrated its 36th running, is similar to the Central Oregon PPP but includes a much longer paddle stage through whitewater.

The Sheldons settled in Bend in the mid-1970s, and Jenny landed a coaching job with the Skyliners Ski Club, now the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation. She had trouble differentiating her young skiers from other kids at Bachelor, so she wanted to raise money to buy distinctive hats for the Skyliners.

“I thought, this might be a cool place for a Pole Pedal Paddle,” Jenny remembered. “It’d be easier, and more user-friendly. When I got the idea, this is kind of how Dave and Jenny work, is one of us gets the idea and the other supports it. And Dave’s a marketing guy. So we sat around the table and talked about how it could go, and this and that.”

The couple screen-printed scores of Pole Pedal Paddle posters, then set out to Portland, Eugene and Corvallis, leaving a poster at every cycling and ski shop they could find.

“They just went, ‘What is this?’ ” Jenny recalled of the curious shop owners. “I think Dave’s genius was understanding that this wasn’t going to just be a community thing, this was going to bring people to the community … and just be a fun, wacky race.”

Jenny noted that almost every phone call she and Dave received in the weeks leading up to the first PPP in 1977 was somebody telling them why they could not stage the race.

Fortunately, the Sheldons had some powerful supporters.

“I went through the hierarchy of Mt. Bachelor, and they also kind of pooh-poohed it, until I got to Bill Healy,” Jenny recounted. “And he just went, ‘Whatever you can do to bring people to this mountain, I support it.’ ”

Vince Genna, longtime director of the Bend parks department, told Jenny to ask for forgiveness, not approval.

As she remembers it: “He called me and he said, ‘Just do it. Don’t call anybody. If they call you to get approval, tell them to talk to me. You just have to do it, and then we’ll figure it out later.’ That was great advice.”

A race for everyone

The Sheldons wanted the Pole Pedal Paddle to be a race for everyone. They wanted folks to be able to throw a team together haphazardly — as Jenny and her family are doing for Saturday — get outside, and just have fun.

The approach proved to be an astounding success. By 1983, the PPP had 2,500 participants. It remains the primary annual fundraiser for the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation.

The Sheldons raised $800 from that first race, more than enough to provide hats for 50 young skiers. Today, the PPP brings in thousands of dollars.

“We kind of let it grow naturally, and I think when you let things do that, then you get this really strong foundation that doesn’t fall apart,” Jenny observed.

The Sheldons stayed on as PPP race directors for seven years, before their young children and Dave’s work and music simply took up too much time.

The couple traveled to Los Angeles for the 1984 Summer Olympics, and Jenny said she remembers that Dave was watching U.S. track and field star Carl Lewis through binoculars.

“And Dave’s going, ‘Oh, there’s these Pole Pedal Paddle shirts all over the stands, all these different years,’ ” Jenny said. “And we’re just going, ‘That’s amazing!’ ”

Lisa Sheldon is a model living in Los Angeles, but she has been back home in Bend since her dad died.

“I just don’t feel like going back down to California quite yet,” Lisa explained.

She added that she is always amazed by how many people know about the PPP, even in Southern California. Lisa is quick to tell them who founded the event.

“I say, ‘My parents started that,’ ” she said. “And they can’t believe it. I think it’s awesome. I always did it (compete in the PPP) as a kid, and we did a family team a few times.”

Andrew Boone, a friend of Katie Sheldon’s, is one of the favorites to win the men’s elite individual race in the PPP on Saturday. Boone said he plans to race in honor of Dave Sheldon.

“This is an event that’s withstood the test of time in Bend,” Boone said. “People are struggling, but you get out on race day and people are just happy to be there. Without (Dave Sheldon), this race wouldn’t be here, and Bend wouldn’t be as great of a place as it is. I grieve every day for their loss, but hopefully I can go out and do Dave Sheldon proud.”

Jenny said she and Dave used to race the PPP course on the weekend before the event, because they were too busy on race day to actually compete.

“We would do it by ourselves privately, just for fun,” she recalled, smiling at the memory. “And it’s a wonderful way to spend the day. You just do everything. Then you’re just kind of tired.

“And you definitely feel like a beer afterwards.”