Saturday, March 01, 2008

Update

We are quite busy making the final preparations for the ride. It is going to be quite an adventure with more than 30 participants for the first day. We invite you to join us as we take off on March 15 from the southwest corner of the CA state capitol building (Corner of 10th and N). We will be taking off at 9am sharp so plan accordingly. We hope to have a LARGE cheering section as we take off. We are also hoping for press coverage that morning, we have a few things in the works.


Fundraising:
We have already shattered our fundraising goal of $50,000. To date, our fundraising total is $63,700 and the total is growing everyday. I do not wish to discourage any donations by letting you know that we are over our original goal. On the contrary, I hope this encourages you to make your donation big or small. Every penny that is given in honor of Ride Ataxia to either the National Ataxia Foundation or the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance will fund the collaborative research projects of these two organizations. Ride Ataxia has requested that this effort be focused on translational research that will help bring treatments from the lab to patients like me and many others. The collaboration of these two organizations will bring forth the most promising research in the world. To make your donation please visit http://firstgiving.com/rideataxia and follow the "instructions for donors" or just respond to this email and I will hook you up.

Press:
Please check out these links. This first one is a short video that will air locally here in Sacramento 5 or 6 times on PBS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGeALpTeSZM

This one is an article about the efforts of our Friends Andy and Linda Johnson. The Johnsons are the breakout story of the year for Ride Ataxia. The Johnsons have already raised over $16,000 and have drawn a lot of press attention in their hometown:
http://www.syracuse.com/articles/madison/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1204192722319080.xml&coll=1

Thats all for now. I hope to see you all on March 15. 2 WEEKS UNTIL GO TIME!


On The Side:

I have to let you know about this new article written by my good friend Matt Strugar-Fritsch. This article is about disabled whitewater sports and will appear in the March issue of Sports and Spokes which features Matt on the cover! This article has nothing to do with the ride but it I am a huge fan of Matt's writing and I hope you like it too:
http://www.pvamagazines.com/sns/magazine/article.php?art=2397

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOO HOO! Sound like it be fun! can't hardly wait til 'go-time'
Spinner ;)

Becky and Chris Prater said...

Kyle- So glad John Lockwood is joining up with you, he has to get in shape for the wedding! Anyway, we'll be there for the kick off on the 15th! Can't wait to see you off, best of luck and besting of kicking gear!