All fingers are crossed for the Roy Taghon Memorial snowmobile drag race on Saturday, February 10 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the William B. Bolton Airport in Empire Township.
Soni Alysworth, the organizer of the event, is hoping this year will go on as scheduled after having to cancel last year because of the lack of snow.
“The main reason is to memorialize Roy Taghon and gather funds for his scholarship at Glen Lake Community Schools,” Alysworth said. “The second reason is to show kids that there is another sport still out there that people are doing.”
Taghon was an Empire native who loved speed, the Heavenly Father, and was a true sled head. He passed away on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2018, during a snowmobile accident.
“It’s been a wonderful tribute to Roy,” Empire historian and father to Roy Taghon, Dave Taghon said. “It’s nice they think of Roy in that way … As long as they continue this and put every nickel back into the scholarships.”
Taghon was actively passionate about music, particularly his liturgical ministry, having played organ at St. Philip Neri in Empire, St. Rita in Maple City and Holy Rosary in Isadore. He began playing organ at St. Philip at the age of 10, and performed his final Mass there before pursuing his other passion of snowmobiling, according to his obituary.
Taghon was a graduate of Glen Lake High School in 1984 and attended Western Michigan University. He was known for his love of faith and enjoyment of life as well as helping out anyone that had a snowmobile question.
For more information regarding the Roy Taghon Memorial Snowmobile Drag Races visit the facebook page.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the races will start at 11 a.m.
