Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Introductions, "How To Make Lemonaide"

With the dawn of summer, Pam and I have been enjoying some unexpected free time neither of us have experienced since those lazy summers of the high school years. Like many of our friends around the country, current conditions have left us a little under-employed. Living here in the Vail Valley unexpected free time is not such a bad thing. We now have ample time to ride our bikes and enjoy this amazing place we call home. Fortunately we have enough work to pay the bills and keep our spoiled dog happy. And we have our health.


With so much extra time and energy we felt inspired to do more with our summer. We have challenged ourselves to spend this summer raising awareness and $10,000 for a local charity, First Descents. We felt the best medium for us to spread the word about the cause and our fund raising efforts was by connecting it with something we will already be doing a lot - riding our bikes.


This summer we'll be traveling around the State (and a few others) riding and racing under the First Descents banner. We'll be racing in a newly designed kit (bike-speak for spandex outfit) and talking to as many people as we can. I've created a blog-site to document our summer, please check it out. Feel free to follow along as I’ll be updating it often.


Never Heard of First Descents? Founded here in the Vail area almost a decade ago, First Descents is committed to changing the lives of young adults fighting cancer. They start by teaching them to Kayak. By challenging cancer survivors to spend a week out of their comfort zone First Descents promised to change their lives forever. Eighteen to thirty-nine year olds are the fastest growing demographic with cancer, with 70,000 new cases diagnosed last year. Equally horrifying, the young adult demographic has been LAST in cure rates in the past 25 years. That's us, our friends, our peers...

An individual in this age group is typically in debt from college, just trying to start a job or family. Suddenly there are constant medical treatments with chemo and radiation. More inherently, there is often a dramatic loss of self-confidence and identity coupled with sharp feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Thankfully there are a lot of great minds / organizations committed to finding a cure. However, what makes us so passionate about First Descents is their commitment to enhancing the lives of people that have been threatened by this deadly disease. Please check out their website, http://www.firstdescents.org/cms/ Watch the video on their homepage, their campers' testimonials speak volumes more than I ever could.

My favorite testimonial


We're asking for your help. Our goal of raising $10,000 is enough to send 10 people to camp for 1 week. By help I mean we'll take whatever you can give. I understand times ARE tough, but help can come in a lot of different forms. Email this to a friend, tell a coworker, give us advice, send us inspiration, give $1 or $100, or make a commitment to give monthly. Come ride with us! http://www.comeridewithus.blogspot.com

Thank You,
Pam and Barry

2 comments:

  1. hey buddy! I just played in a golf tournament last sat. where all the proceeds when to First Desents! what a coincidence! Keep up the good work!

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  2. Need to mail a check- what is your mailing address? call me with address when you get time!

    What an excellent mission! Great Luck with it!
    MikeO

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