It's Coming Together!!

A little bit later in the week I emailed a man by the name of Martin Parnell. Mr. Parnell ran 250 marathons for a charity called Right to Play. You can see how successful Mr. Parnell has been by visiting his website  http://www.marathonquest250.com/, but when emailing Mr. Parnell it was clear that passion was driving his success. I gave Mr. Parnell a quick rundown about what I have planned and asked him for suggestions about ways I can improve. He emailed me back that very same day with lots of great suggestions. I have learned a great deal from the success of Martin Parnell, and I am thankful for his willingness to assist me; however, the most important words I heard from him were that I have some degree of control over my cycling, but unfortunately less control over sponsorships and donations. He told me to keep my head up, work, hard and try to learn from people.

THEN, things started coming together! The Parris family realized that a big roadblock for this ride was that we were lacking a vehicle, so they have graciously donated their van to be used during this ride. This is huge! I am so thankful for this family, as they are always super supportive and positive people. Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope has a vehicle that will allow us to carry lots of gear and keep our budget even lower than before. Next step for the vehicle is finding a good vehicle graphics place so we can put sponsorship logos and Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope info on the vehicle for all of Canada to see!

The great news just keeps coming. Elyse and I spent several days visiting businesses in Sarnia to try and secure auction items for the June 1^st event we have organized. People were very welcoming to us and we have secured great items, but we still have our work cut out to try and secure more. I will post a list of businesses who have donated and what they have donated when I have a complete list of items!

While we were approaching local businesses we stopped at Pro Oil Change on Cathcart Blvd. in Sarnia, because I got my car’s oil changed by them a week before and they had it done in under seven minutes. I thought they may donate an oil change, but I was not expecting them to make such a HUGE contribution. John Blais is the manager of this Pro Oil Change who donated $3500 worth of oil change gift certificates for us to use, 4 months roadside assistance for each of the $50 dollar gift certificates, and is working on including Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope in a national sponsorship program offered by Pro Oil Change!! I was latterly shaking when I received all this amazing news and I can’t thank the guys at Pro Oil Change enough for their support. I didn’t realize that Pro Oil Change was such a huge supporter of great causes….Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope is just one more great cause to add to their list. These guys go way beyond their call of duty when it comes to supporting the community!

I wrote a sponsorship request to Mr. Simon Smith who is the VP of Exxon Mobil and I received an email last night saying ESSO will fuel the estimated cost of the entire trip $2500 (Driving from Sarnia-Vancouver, Vancouver-Halifax, & Halifax to Sarnia!!!!!) I couldn’t drop the smile on my face the entire day. The cost of fuel was a gigantic expense and I am ecstatic that ESSO has stepped up to the plate and supported Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope….Thank you so much for allowing more money to go towards Parkinson’s research!

So, our initial budget included:

1) Cost of flights to fly to Vancouver and from Halifax to home. –Eliminated by Mike & Nicola Parris

2) Food- Lowered by some of the families we are fortunate to stay with

3)Car rental- Eliminated by Mike & Nicola Parris
4) Bike and gear- Bike sponsored by Revolution Bicycle Shop and Wawanosh Watercraft in Sarnia
5) gas- Eliminated by Imperial Oil/ESSO

6) Advertising- Still have to pay for putting the graphic logos of the sponsors on the vehicle etc.

Dave Hill is the owner of Team Outfitters in Sarnia, ON and he created an incredible logo for Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope shirts! Mr. Hill has sponsored these shirts and we will be selling them throughout the country! This is another amazing sponsorship that I am very grateful for and I thank the team at Team Outfitters so, so, so much for donating their time and materials!!!! These shirts look great.

I am back in Windsor to teach until May 25^th, so I will be focusing most of my attention towards my students, lesson planning, and training during the week and Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope on weekends in Sarnia!

I am going to be a busy beaver this week but I am so happy that everything is coming together! My family and friends have been a vital support system throughout all this planning, but community and corporate partnerships are stepping up huge and Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope has really started to come together!

I have to thank Elyse Parris and Jason Hill for creating the Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope website! Jay taught me how to buy domain names, and helped link the Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope website to the domain name in the virtual world and Elyse designed all the pages. Take a little time to stroll through www.pdcycle.com

Thanks for following! I am going to put up a few more blogs when I have a few minutes this month, but during the trip I will be uploading daily video blogs!

Take care till next time!

Passion

I was fortunate enough to have meeting with Luke Coles, the principal of Blyth Academy in Toronto. I was introduced to Mr. Coles via email by Barbra Smith, who has helped me out a lot. Mr. Coles took some time to meet with me to discuss ways I can improve Parkinson's Cycle of hope. 

Last year Mr. Coles and the students, parents, etc of Blyth Academy raised $130 000 for the Terry Fox Foundation! I left Mr. Cole's office with several new connections and a whole whack load of ideas.

Luke told me the thing that caught his attention the most was when, he heard about Parkinson's Cycle of Hope being fortunate enough to secure accommodations along the way with people who have been affected by Parkinson's in some way. My inspiration obviously comes from my dad's diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, but each and every one of us has a unique experience that I hope to be able to share. 

Luke let me in on a very personal story about why Parkinson's disease is near and dear to his heart. He has seen a very close friend of his family quickly progress through the devastation of Parkinson’s disease. It was difficult to see his sadness as he spoke about seeing someone he loves battling Parkinson's disease. Stories like the one Luke shared with me help fuel me even more to make Parkinson's Cycle of Hope a success. There are over 100,000 people living with Parkinson's disease and the number is expected to double by 2016. We are both hopeful that Parkinson's Cycle of Hope can help connect people who have Parkinson's disease to spread awareness and education, while raise money to fund Parkinson's research.

While I was stuck in Toronto traffic, I had a few hours to think about Parkinson's Cycle of Hope. I immediately started to get this intense sense of adrenaline pumping through my body, and it was as if my heart became a gigantic ball of energy. I have been wondering why I have these feelings, and I truly believe the most plausible answer is it is passion. I believe Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope will be a huge success because the people supporting it are passionate about the cause. I don’t just want to raise a bunch of money…I want to include individuals, communities, and corporations in this ride, so it becomes a collaborative ride of everyone working together to spread awareness and education.

First Event!

I want to thank a friend of mine from the University of Windsor. I was in residence with Nagham El-houssein and she has the type of outgoing personality that is always helping others. Nagham called me up and said: 

“Hey Cory, is it okay if I do a bake sale with the BCNSA at the University of Windsor to raise money for Parkinson’s Cycle of hope.”

I was so excited she wanted to organize a bake sale to help us! And when Nagham gets something set in her head, she isn’t going to settle for anything less than perfect.

Nagham and the BCNSA of the University of Windsor came together with friends to make some amazing snacks which were sold to raise almost $1000!!!!!!!!! I can’t thank them enough for what they did…they took the initiative to create the first Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope event & what a great success it was. It was incredible to see the support from the people who were on the University of Windsor campus that day, because all the snacks were based on donations and almost every person made a contribution! I also met several people who mentioned Parkinson’s disease was affecting one of their loved ones, and I want them to know they are the reason we are doing this!

Here is the link to the Facebook page   http://www.facebook.com/events/183453795101495/?ref=ts