John Henry Bikes - Community

Cyclebetes 2008: Wrap Up

Over $67,000 raised and still the pledges keep coming!

This event has had quite an evolution and after this first year I think it has quite a future as well. So much accomplished and so much we learned.

For three years now John Henry Bikes has held a 24 hour spin in our store. It had been a great fundraiser but it needed to go bigger. Plus my body was beginning to revolt as it had only ever been me riding! Stupid really...

Over the time we had held this spin Ian Kennedy, my friend and fellow John Henry racer, had threatened to join my on the podium pounding out the kilometres. It had been about five years we had known each other and slowly Ian had taken his obsession for white water kayaking and replaced it with cycling. We got on really well because we both came from team sports back grounds and were both really trying to hold onto the glory years!

Well as the year progressed and Ian caught wind that John Henry had sponsored a few crazy guys, including myself, for a race across Canada in aid of Juvenile Diabetes the ground work was set. You see, Ian is a Vice Principal at Rockridge Secondary School and Juvenile Diabetes touches a lot of his students. He proposed we get together and do a spin-a-thon for JDRF. John Henry Bikes was up for it but we had a few things that between Ian and I we wanted to make sure were addressed before it was official.

It needed to be run by the youth for the youth
It needed to involve as many people as possible rather than be elitist or just me and him
Anybody could be involved

The stage was set and Ian had already commandeered another of our good friends, past elite racer and all around super school administer, John Crowley. He was another guy we needed because he could get things done...and always with a story and a smile.

Quickly we put together a school leadership committee, laid out the idea and the kids began the work of getting this event off the ground. There was lots of work to do but by meeting in October we felt there would be lots of time. We were wrong but it was still just enough...

Alistair, Francesca, Tara, Cam, Max and a whole host of other grade 11 students began trying to fit Cyclebetes organization, promotion and development into their busy lives. It was absolutely a pleasure to see young people actually believing they could be the catalysts to making a difference. You see, normally we see so much apathy and waiting that to have this event run top to bottom, with Ian, John and I as guidance, by the kids was a win we wanted more than even the fund raising. Young people seeing the power is worth way more over the long haul than a few thousand dollars in year one. There just had to be that youth growth and understanding as a positive result through Cyclebetes...and it worked. These guys just made it happen from minute one. Facebook, meetings, art work, blogs, websites, late night emails, class learning, speeches and parental motivation. They did it all and they did it well. It was incredible.

After Christmas we hit over drive. Parent teacher meetings had Ian and his teachers busy already but they still managed to put on a great display and we started to feel some traction. The John Henry Bikes connections started to fill out their teams and we began to feel the influence of our time with Team H2V. People were just excited that the charity and the events were evolving into something they could participate in as well.

Our goals were to get 50 teams and about $50,000 as we had encouraged each team to raise a minimum of $1000. Slowly our teams started to trickle in with most opting for the maximum number of participants, which was 12. As the event unfolded we saw that almost every team lost at least two people and ended up with between 8 and 10 actual participants. Just enough so everyone had a little drama on their team but not so much that thy couldn't fulfill their obligations. The drama added something to talk about for 24 hours and was fun after all was said and done.

As an event we became JDRF's first third party event to try out their new online donation website. While it offered us a great option, it came a little late and had a few hiccups. Nothing we couldn't fight through but everyone, including JDRF, was working with this system for the first time. But it was for charity so everyone worked hard to make it happen and in the end everything came through. Online and off line we just kept seeing the money coming through. Special thanks going to Team Live To Ride, Ross Bonetti's family, who raised a staggering $10,000 [+]!!! Ross's family has a direct connection with Juvenile Diabetes and he really helped get the word out amongst his friends and clients. Each team did their thing though and gathered both bodies and money in a way we weren't expecting.

You know the total already, which at $67,000 blew away our goal of $50,000, but you didn't know that this was from only 35 teams. Absolutely incredible. Over 350 people came together to raise this incredible amount of money for JDRF.

Some event highlights:

at 4pm on Friday their was complete panic as almost every team was late to start as they scrambled to get their spinners in gear. At 4:10pm every team was looking eyes forward and the emotions were running from elation to the terrified as the realization that 24 hours was indeed a long time.
hyped up music hit for a few hours as we had West Van's Mayor, the honourable Pam Goldsmith-Jones, do a speech and Rita Thodos from JDRF kick us off.
On the hour we began trivial pursuit questions to give out prizes and two 12 year olds both won super cycling jerseys from North Shore Athletics, whose team was present and in great spirits. Later that evening two John Henry Bikes jerseys were given away and even two big gift certificates from HBC. Awesome prizes but really they were just gravy as everyone seemed to just be relishing the experience.
John Henry Bikes had three teams rocking and Jay, our team leader had put in three long hours right off the bat. I think he did the whole first five hours.
Ian and John both rode in excess of 15 hours each!!!
At 7pm on Friday we watched Breaking Away, which got rave reviews as the Cutters won the Little 500. Great way to kill a few hours on the pedals.
Then followed Tour de France videos to music and Star Wars over night.
We even had a spin class at 2am! Thanks Nick and thanks for the chocolate beans that everyone got all hopped up on.
At 10pm, 12am and the next day Pizza Hut delivered 60 large pizzas. There was some serious pizza eating all night. Thanks Pizza Hut, you saved us from bonking all through the night.
Starbucks also rocked us a ton of coffee and treats...and let me tell you, 6am coffee could not come fast enough.
We had school trustees rolling bike legs during all parts of the evening and even groups sleeping next to their bikes as they rolled through the entire 24 hours.
Northern Athletic, John Henry Bikes, and Norco were giving out prizes including bottle openers and coffee cups that I think got use during the event itself:)
There were people of all ages and abilities riding and trying, some just pushing the pedals and others, like team IF White rock - really getting great work outs.
Team Fast Forward might just be our most inspired team as they all, bar none, made some very positive statement and all agreed to get their fitness going as a result of enjoying themselves so much. Big shout out to these guys. Great job.
I can't mention all the teams but each and every team was really smiling and making it happen, even during the dog days from 2am to 6am. And really there were a lot of kids, which in itself was what it was all about.
Teams waned a little through the night but throughout it all the leadership committee stayed the course, managed the teams, the pledges, the registrations and got it all done... even as they got squirlly because of lack of sleep. Great job guys. You did a phenomenal job.
We had live bands, improv and speeches all 24 hours. Thanks to the band and the improv team. Awesome work.
The time started to drift away and slowly we realized we were going to crush our goal amount. People got on their cell phones and managed to fire in a few extra dollars as we came down to the wire.

We think we will make $70,000 by the end of the week.

Ian Kennedy deserves a special mention as he put this all together while managing the day to day life of a Vice Principal, which can include fights, detentions, coaching, teaching, administration, adolescent issues and his own family. He is a master, a great role model for our youth and the type of teacher you want your kids to have. John Crowley is of the same mold and a good friend of both Ian and John Henry Bikes. All smiles, all stories. With him behind our event we were sure to succeed. He is another teacher you want to have your kids get the pleasure to be taught by and one of very few that have coached school teams for over 18 years without fail. Both of these guys made this happen and I can't thank them enough for their contribution to the lives of all of us at John Henry Bikes.

All in all another great John Henry event and a huge thank you to Ian Kennedy, John Crowley, The Rockridge leadership team and you guys, for helping, riding and sponsoring your friends.

Next year at least two schools on the same weekend, 100 teams minimum at Rockridge and over $100,000. Get your team together soon!

Thanks all and send us your pictures!
Check out some of the photos we have here.

Labels: bike, Cyclebetes, cycling, fundraising, JDRF, John Henry Bikes, juvenile diabetes, Rockridge, Rockridge Secondary School, spin, spin-a-thon, spinning, Willie Cromack