July 8

It’s the last day of Euro Camp Jeep 2008…somewhat bittersweet. It’s been a fantastic event, but admittedly the people behind the scene are ready for a little R&R (rest and relaxation).

The highlight of the day for me was the Jeep Challenge…as easy as falling off a bike! The Jeep Challenge is made up of multiple activates, all enabling a team to earn chips that buy logs required to building the platform to move a Jeep Wrangler across the obstacle course. Climbing the rope ladder, walking across the tightrope roughly 20 meters off the ground and riding the zip line 80 meters down to the ground will get you a chip. Fascinating to watch, and even more thrilling to complete in. Yet, the section that requires participants to ride a bike over various obstacles is the most difficult for many people. So many riders fall off the boards in the manmade teeter totters! They are falling over, running into rocks, knocking over our camera crew or simply just falling off the bike! It has been a Mecca for our film crew to grab entertaining footage for our daily video recap during the Jeep Party!

After a few strong rain bursts this afternoon, the sky cleared enough tonight when we once again handed out the awards for winners of the Jeep Map, Jeep Trek, Jeep Challenge and finally, the Fashion Show. The teams brought so much energy to the stage when they were recognized for winning one of these challenges. The competition was fierce by the time we got to the fashion show. From Austria’s spelling out “Euro Camp Jeep” with the jerseys to the Jeep Green shirts of the Swiss, and their spirit, well…der Schweizer took home the trophy while the Austrians received runner up. A close finish!

And we had a celebration of another type of this year’s Euro Camp Jeep. Here’s commitment…Peter and Lydia Seidl got married this past Saturday and on Sunday arrived at Euro Camp Jeep. Now that’s enthusiasm for this event!

Finally, an update on our carbon-neutral project with Waldaktie, an organization which plants trees in the first tourism forest in Germany through donations. In addition the 660 trees that Jeep sponsored at the start of the event, 426 teams finished the Jeep Challenge and registered for another tree to be sponsored in their name. So all together, Jeep sponsored 1,086 trees, officially making Euro Camp Jeep 2008 carbon-positive! Thanks to everyone who finished the Challenge!

The band is done playing now, the crowd is gone and all that’s left is breaking down the stage, packing up everything…and we’re already talking about how we are going to make next year’s Euro Camp Jeep even more exciting and spectacular! Hope to see you in 2009!Every day is an adventure…have fun out there in a Jeep!

--Judy Wheeler, Director International Marketing