CUMBERLAND, Md. — Forty teams, including one Maryland couple, are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime on the internationally televised trivia-based travel and adventure series Fireball Run.

“Her oldest child and my oldest child have agreed to help pay for marriage counseling when we get back,” said Jeff Rhodes, who is Cumberland’s city administrator.

Rhodes and his wife, Liz, were picked to represent Allegany County, which is among the destinations the teams will visit. The teams go on a 2,000 mile journey, starting in Salamanca, New York and ending in Amesbury, Massachusetts, traveling through five East Coast states.

Each season, with the tenth season starting in September, the Fireball Run takes viewers on a real-life scavenger hunt through eight of America’s “under-discovered” cities, promoting tourism to some of the nation’s best kept secrets. 

But there’s more to it than that. 

“The connection to trying to find missing children is what did it for us,” said Rhodes about accepting the invitation to compete. “Not to be corny, but we have four kids and three grandkids and it’s just unimaginable to think about having a missing child or a missing grandchild.”

The series supports the Child Rescue Network, a nonprofit working to locate America’s missing children. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Fireball Run is the country’s largest active recovery effort working to find missing kids, aiding in the return of 44 missing children. 

Each team is provided with a description of a missing child from their area, and given 1,000 missing child flyers to distribute along their journey. 

“Ten days and 3,000 miles will be worth it just to get the word out,” Rhodes said. 

The couple was appointed by Cumberland Mayor Brian Grim based on the requirements set by the program. Each team must consist of a company CEO and an elected official. It just so happens this duo was married. 

“You have to have a certain level of person” said Barbara Buehl, Allegany County tourism director, “and you want someone that can represent the community. There isn’t anybody that knows more about housing values and business than Liz, and there isn’t anybody that knows more about our community, incentives and where we’re heading than Jeff. I honestly think they are great representatives.”

Liz Rhodes is owner and CEO of Coldwell Banker Professional Real Estate Services in Cumberland. She said she expects to learn a lot from the experience, vowing to stay in contact with loved ones during the duration of the race.

“It’s definitely out of my comfort zone to be doing this scavenger hunt, but we should meet a lot of nice people and learn a lot about the states we are visiting and hopefully help find a missing child,” she said. “It will be unforgettable.”

Fireball Run airs on television in most of its foreign markets, according to executive producer J. Sanchez, during a visit to the end town of Amesbury, Massachusetts last year. 

“The impact of the Fireball Run is this,” Sanchez said. “We are showing the world what is out there. Our destinations are reporting that tourism has kicked up as a result of the show. Their website traffic to their tourism sites has increased between 5-10 percent. Those are real metrics. The economic impact of the show for being a destination for one day is, I think, roughly $178,000 per day in the residual spending that happens as a result of the Fireball Run.”

The Mayor of Amesbury, Ken Gray, and Charlie Cullen, retired Provident Bank President and CEO, will be competing as the representatives of Amesbury.

Wolford is a reporter for The Cumberland, Maryland Times-News. The Newburyport, Massachusetts Daily News contributed to this story.