{"id":3924,"date":"2016-11-01T17:38:12","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T21:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2018-05-13T18:44:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T22:44:16","slug":"crab-racing-brings-smiles-to-students-sick-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/crab-racing-brings-smiles-to-students-sick-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Crab racing brings smiles to students, sick children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor Erdman<br \/>\nIn Motion Staff Writer<\/p>\n<p>Daytona State is home to spontaneous and peculiar events, but by far the kookiest and most student-engaging might be the NCRA, the National Crab Racing Association.<\/p>\n<p>Owned and operated by Jim Morgan, the NCRA comes to campus once a year and can be found in Building 130, also known as the Lenholdt Student Center. This year it was tucked away in the corner by the Veterans Center. Armed with his microphone, catchy blood-pumping music and 100 hermit crabs, Morgan offered up a chance at a $100 cash prize to the contestant with the fastest hermit crab.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3907\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3907\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3907\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Expectant-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Students wait anxiously for the lid containing their tiny racers to be lifted.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Expectant-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Expectant-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Expectant-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Expectant-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3907\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students wait anxiously for the lid containing their tiny racers to be lifted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Crab races consist of three rounds. The first round is anyone\u2019s game. Pick a hermit crab (hopefully a spunky one!) give it name and hand it over. But only the top 10 make it to the second round.<\/p>\n<p>The second race is composed of the energetic top 10 intending to supersede their opponents to the top three spots, where only the first-place winner has a chance at the cash prize. The third and final round of the NCRA races is by far the most heart-pounding of all. Three crabs race as energetically as their little bodies will let them for their human to claim the glory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought it was fun!\u201d says Kaila Armstrong, the first place winner for 2016. \u201cI was really happy beating my team mates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong also refers to her fellow Daytona State soccer pals who raced alongside her award winning Beyonc\u00e9 crab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was scared to pick up a crab. It was pretty crabby. Get it? It was pretty crabby that I lost,\u201d Naomi Gurrola says with a giggle.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3908\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3908\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3908\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tiny-Racers-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Active little Hermit Crabs scurry with all their might as they race to the outer ring.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tiny-Racers-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tiny-Racers-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tiny-Racers-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tiny-Racers-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3908\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Active little Hermit Crabs scurry with all their might as they race to the outer ring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Win or lose, the NCRA event is always memorable and evokes a sense of merry pride when to be able to say, \u201cI raced in the National Crab Association!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Owning and operating his tiny racers for 37 years, Morgan is all over the place, be it in DeLand, Daytona State or entertaining sick children in the hospital. He was supposed to visit a children\u2019s hospital in Jacksonville just before Hurricane Mathew, but \u201cThey called me up and I said I may not make it cause of the storm. And the chairman said, \u2018Jim, you gotta, the kids need you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pausing and looking thoughtful, Morgan adds that \u201cThen I knew I had to go, for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite a continuing hard economy, and traveling from place to place all over the state, he says he does it because he loves it. He does it for the kids because it brings a smile to their face, not to mention the occasional college scholar that need a change and laugh from their stressful schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor Erdman In Motion Staff Writer Daytona State is home to spontaneous and peculiar events, but by far the kookiest and most student-engaging might be the NCRA, the National Crab Racing Association. Owned and operated by Jim Morgan, the NCRA comes to campus once a year and can be found <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/crab-racing-brings-smiles-to-students-sick-children\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Crab racing brings smiles to students, sick children<\/span><span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3925,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions\/3925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}