By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

Goffstown's Keith Campbell has taken part in one of the world's few athletic events to feature three of the basic food groups.

Campbell, 34, used beef, eggs and fruit - in the form of watermelon seeds - to compete for the title of the "World's Greatest Backyard Athlete" at Lederman Field on Boston's Esplanade on Saturday, June 11.

The competition was part of the Backyard Festival, which was sponsored by Derry-based apparel company Life is Good, where Campbell is general manager of operations. The festival was planned in conjunction with Project Joy, a program trains teachers and counselors how to help heal children who have experienced traumas through play, the arts, dance and other activities.

The "World's Greatest Back- yard Athlete" competition featured five events, including disc throwing, bocce, a homerun wiffle-ball derby, a watermelon seed spitting contest and an obstacle course.

The obstacle course required athletes to run while balancing an egg on a spoon, running through 12 tires, flipping six hamburgers on a grill and hopping 20 yards to the finish line in a burlap sack. Campbell said the two portions of the competition he enjoyed most were the ones involving food - the obstacle course and the watermelon seed spitting contest.

"During the obstacle course, it was funny watching people hop and trip over the tires, and then fall on their face," he said.

Campbell thought he excelled at the watermelon seed spitting contest, though he did not check any of his scores. He said spitting the seeds was difficult because he had a 20-foot runway in front of him on which to spit the seeds. But the runway was only three feet wide, so if any of the 10 seeds a competitor was given to spit landed in the grass along the runway, the seed was disqualified.

He said the contest was fun and out of the ordinary.

"You see men and women putting watermelon seeds in their mouths and spitting them as far as they will go," he said. "It is not something you see every day."

He said several competitors were asking each other about their techniques of seed spitting, such as whether to curl the tongue.

"You had to make sure you did not spit on other people, especially the referees," he said.

For the past two years, Life is Good has sponsored the Backyard Festival. Last year, the festival raised about $72,000, said Campbell, who helped plan the event last year, but did not participate in the competition. This year, the festival raised $106,875.

The proceeds from the festival, which were raised through T-shirt and food sales, will benefit Project Joy. Campbell said he intends to participate as both a planner and competitor in next year's festival because it helps children who face tough challenges and because he had fun in the athletic contest.

"I'm really looking forward to doing it again," he said. "It was a fun event and is for a great cause."

Life is Good will be sponsoring their third annual pumpkin festival in October. Campbell said the money raised from the event will go to Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children who have terminally ill diseases and their families.