Crohn's Rides?

[Trek420]

Aggie_A,

It's very do-able. (((hugs))) to DH. My sister and my neice both have Crohns and both ride. Thanks for doing this.

[Aggie_Ama]

Well now the gears are turning. The Seattle ride would give me a long time to prepare both in fundraising and the trip.

The other thing I am wondering is how one begins an organized ride? Do you contact the LBS? The local cycling club? It just seems like everywhere I turn I meet someone who knows someone with Crohn's, why not have a ride in the Southwest? I am not sure this is something I would be ready to take on, but it seems like something to put my heart into.

I am going to keep researching ways to pedal and raise money for CCFA. Right now DH is beginning Remicade, but I don't want to have him on it forever. There must be a way to find a cure. It is a pretty hard diagnosis to take, so I am channeling my frustration elsewhere.

[Duck on Wheels]

Yep, my daughter and I both have Crohns and both ride. Ride, hike, swim, ski, work more than we oughta. I'm not in all that great shape, but I'm still pretty active. And DD is training for the California Aids Ride 2007! Two words of encouragement for a new Crohn-ie:
1) Not that I'm a Mormon (far from it!) but according to one historic Mormon elder "The secret of a long life, is to get yourself an incurable disease ... and take care of it." Now THAT I do believe.
2) I just read in a local science magazine that somebody at my university has come up with a new mechanism for stopping auto-immune diseases (Crohns falls into that category). So far they've done the mouse tests on this for one skin disease, because then they could apply it as a cream. The mouse tests were successful, but there are still some years of human testing to do before it can go on the market. And for Crohns they have to find a different way of delivering the medication to the affected areas. So we'll still have to be patient, but at least there are new approaches under development.

Which I guess brings us back to your goal: Yes, there seems to be good reasons to do fund-raising for Crohns. There is research out there to support, and support group work to support while we wait for the research results. I wasn't aware that there were Crohns rides anywhere. Glad you found some. Perhaps others could be organized (talk to local bike clubs? bike shops?). I also wasn't aware that one could self-declare fund-raising goals for other, non-charity rides. Hmmm. Maybe we Crohn'ies on TE could find a weekend when there are rides here and there and overlay those with a virtual charity ride for Crohns ...?

As for raising the funds, there are several threads on that hereabouts. My DD has started her fund-raising for ALC. She's got letters printed up to send to friends and relations. She's made cards to insert into bags of cookies she plans to sell at her own and her BF's universities (took some calculating to work out what to charge for the cookies, but I guess she's got that done too). And I gather her BF wrote a piece for the local paper. Sister Trek420 also gets some sponsorship from the firm she works for. They contribute money and I vaguely recall that Trek proposed they make team jerseys the company's riders could all wear one day of the ride. That could be quite a PR show for the company if they all rode out as a group, for instance. I'm sure you'll find other tips in threads in this theme area.

[Trek420]

Duck on Wheels sorry to say that this is not true "Sister Trek420 also gets some sponsorship from the firm she works for."

No shirts, jerseys, water bottles, no company match....now if I was a golf tournament or was a football team or bowl game...

The grand high mucky muck poobah of Residential Service for Big Mega Telco was one of my sponsors on my last AIDS ride.

She made noises about team jerseys. But we're too po' to afford them at BMT corporation. We bought Bell South....but can't afford jerseys. I told her there will be publicity, we ride through tiny rural towns in CA where this is one of the biggest events of the year we should have...

Was she ever there was a 7-day made for TV movie filmed of the ride, our competitions team had jerseys....

I came back and said "for a few $35.00 jerseys you could have had 7 days of advertising in the youth market, our competition did!"

oops.

However....many companies match their employees charitable donations (not mine ahem). These funds usually take a long time to post but if someone's sponsoring you ask them.

[Aggie_Ama]

My husband has a pretty good attitude "You just play with the hand you are dealt." He went in for his first Remicade therapy yesterday and was a little frustrated about the treatment, but optimistic.

A virtual ride? That is a great idea! I think I found Betagirl raised her own money for Crohn's in 2005, maybe she can share what she did. This would allow up to raise money without the stress of hitting $1900.

I found there is going to be a "Get Your Guts in Gear" in Texas, March 23-25, 2007. They require $1900, which I would love to believe I will hit but it is a tall order. I need to think this one over for a while.

I loved Toni's idea of standing at the local university in her bike clothes. It is just so catchy.

[Trek420]

Don't just stand...train! Might as well, you have to train anyway.

There's a group of ALC riders who set up a fund raiser on a rainy day in SF indoors on their stationary trainers

[Aggie_Ama]

Don't just stand...train! Might as well, you have to train anyway.

There's a group of ALC riders who set up a fund raiser on a rainy day in SF indoors on their stationary trainers

Every year the University of Texas does this before their 4,000 mile ride for Cancer. It might not work in Austin. I have never seen it done in the town I went to school at, maybe I could try there? My wheels are definitely spinning, which is better than my head. It has been spinning since DH started getting sick 8/25. This is much more productive.

[uk elephant]

As Mother Duck (Duck on Wheels) and Auntie Trek (Trek420) said, I have chron's and I'm riding. I was worried about making the $2500 target for ALC too and almost didn't sign up. But then I decided to do it anyway. I started sending out letters to people this week (so no response yet...) and I started my cookie sales this week. I brought them in to my work yesterday and to BF's department today and so far I've made $25 profit. Not much in the big scheme of things, but it's a good start and I plan on doing this every week so it should help.

So my recommendation is to find a ride that you can make it to date-wise and sign up. I'm certain you won't have too much trouble getting the donations in.