Declared a success by everyone present and participating, Gov. Mark Sanford's Family Fitness Challenge attracted more than 100 kayakers and canoers to Sparkleberry Landing in Rimini Sunday.

The kayak tour to Sparkleberry Swamp was the third event in the governor's Family Fitness Challenge. Earlier this month, the governor and his family kicked off the 2005 Family Fitness Challenge with the 28th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston and the 2005 March of Dimes WalkAmerica event here, in Orangeburg. He has plans of announcing future events as they materialize throughout the year.

"The most important thing is that people become more active," Sanford said. "Even if it's just working in the yard or walking around the block. South Carolina finished 47th in health rankings of the states. We must improve our ranking and the only way to do that is to get out and move, do something active."

The kayak tour was the first time for the governor and his family visited the Sparkleberry Landing portion of the swamp. Pausing to drink in its natural beauty with cypress and tupelo trees reaching skyward like beams in a cathedral, Sanford was visibly taken with the beauty of the location.

"This area is unique in South Carolina and the east coast," Sanford said. "It's the largest hardwood bottom on the East Coast and our legacy to our children should be its preservation."

After all the kayaks and canoes were placed in the water and manned, the flotilla of sightseers set off for an hour-long tour with an enthusiastic whoop, led by the governor and slowly disappeared behind the many expansive bases of the cypress and tupelo trees.

Once the group disappeared in the swamp thickly populated with trees, Sparkleberry Landing became as quiet as a church; the silence broken only once in a while by the call of the many birds lingering in their tree towers.

As the kayakers began to trickle back into the landing area, they were all impressed by the beauty of the Sparkleberry portion of the swamp.

Goose Creek resident Marielle Young was ecstatic about the sights on the swamp, hailing it as "one of the most beautiful places I've seen in this state.

"It was quiet, peaceful and incredibly calming just to be out there," she said. "Even with all the other kayakers, everybody was just taking in the beauty of this place. This is a very special place here. We need to protect it."

Karen Harmon, a resident of Columbia, echoed Young's feelings.

"This is my first time here, but I can heartily guarantee that it won't be my last," Harmon said. "I've got to bring my boyfriend out here. He's an attorney and mired in stress. He needs this. He needs to come out here in this quiet and just forget about all the things that stress him out."

Charles Maxwell declared that he enjoyed the kayak tour more than anybody else. He said he had visited the area several times in the past, so, had a greater appreciation for what it offers than those who were seeing it for the first time.

"I've probably been here at least 10 or 12 times that I can recall," Maxwell said. "Every time I come here I notice something that I didn't notice before. This place is one-of-a-kind. I get out into nature often, but I've never seen a place quite like this one. This is South Carolina's best-kept secret. We've got to keep it. It's like a jewel for South Carolina. I guess that's why they call it Sparkleberry."

n T&D Staff Writer Thomas Brown can be reached at 803-533-5532 or by e-mail at tbrown@timesand democrat.com

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