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!