Meg Roussos / The BulletinNancy Richards participates in the Freeze Your Fanny fundraiser in Madras on Saturday.

MADRAS — Fannies were chilled but not frozen Saturday morning in Madras, as temperatures held steady just a few degrees above freezing for the annual “Freeze Your Fanny” fun run.

Around 50 people braved the cold to take on their choice of an 8-mile run, a 3-mile run, or a 3-mile run combined with a 500-yard swim at the Madras Aquatic Center.

As in past years, Saturday’s event was a fundraiser for Juniper Junction Relief Nursery, a Madras-based organization that seeks to prevent child abuse and neglect.

About a year and a half ago, Juniper Junction Relief Nursery merged with MountainStar Family Relief Nursery, a Bend-based group tackling the same issues across Central Oregon.

Tim Rusk, executive director for MountainStar, said raising a small child can be overwhelming even for the best-prepared parents. For parents who are living in poverty, have a history of substance abuse, mental health challenges or other issues, parenting can be even more difficult, he said.

“Just being a parent of young children is really stressful, but when you add a bunch of other factors … we just want to see that they get off to a good start,” Rusk said.

Rusk said MountainStar serves about 350 families in the region, providing training for parents, crisis intervention and support for basic needs such as food and housing.

Dr. Bud Beamer, who created Juniper Junction Relief Nursery and started the fun run in 2008, said the event has been at the mercy of the weather since the beginning. The route of the run has frequently been altered at the last minute due to less-than-optimal running conditions, he said.

“If the roads are really frosty and icy, we have to try to run a flatter course,” Beamer said. “We try to make it scenic, especially for the out-of-towners, show ’em what we’re about in Madras.”

In a late change this year, the course didn’t go by Deer Ridge Correctional Institution east of the aquatic center, due to a mishap last year when the turnaround was in the facility’s parking lot.

According to Beamer, the guards didn’t get the message about the event last year, and when they spotted two blue-clad men jogging by, they hopped in a prison vehicle, flipped on the sirens and chased them down.

Tyler Nelson, of Bend, was one of the first to come off the chilly run course and slip into the warm waters of the aquatic center.

His day complete 10 laps later, Nelson, 21, said it had been a fun event, but a little backward.

A member of a triathlon team at the University of Southern California, Nelson said he’s grown accustomed to the traditional triathlon arrangement of swim, then bike, then run. He said he felt a bit stiff swimming after running, but was able to work out the kinks after the first 100 yards.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com