The Speech

So yesterday I wrote about the ride we had and about the gathering. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should share with you, my cyber-friends what I actually said because even though most of you weren't there with me on the ride, your support has meant so much and I'm hoping that we'll be able to continue the war against cancer on our bikes. Here is what I said to everyone gathered;

"A little more than a year ago when we first started talking about the idea of Connor’s Army I was pretty certain I could do the mileage but I wasn’t certain if we could reach our goal of raising $10,000. Along the way people have asked me why I started this project and the answer has always been simple – I’ve seen my family hit by various forms of cancer four times in a two years period and I needed to do something to fight back. Because of the efforts of organizations like the American Cancer Society and numerous health care professionals all over the country, all of my family members are healthy and I’m so blessed to have two of them here with us today. I wish I personally had the money to give to show my gratitude for all those who’ve helped my family but I don’t. However, I knew I had to do something – I could do this and thanks to a lot of people, Connor’s Army was able to reach both of our main goals. This party is about celebrating reaching those goals and to honor some people who made it possible.

First of all, there are the people who donated to Connor’s Army. From the very beginning people like you gave to our cause and some who gave are people I will never ever meet but who themselves were touched by the hand of cancer and wished to give something to help in the fight. Relatives hosted Silpada parties and other fundraisers through their businesses, friends hosted Pampered Chef parties and generously donated their commissions to our cause – from so many different places, the money came in and it has all added up to the total we’ll be giving today to the American Cancer Society. To all of you I thank you so much for believing I could do this and for helping us fight the good fight.

Secondly, there are those people who provided sponsorship to us. From the very beginning Laura Berman Fortgang (my sister-in-law by the way and someone who has given to us in so many ways) from Now What and Allan Rosenberg from Coinland (the father of one of my students and a cancer survivor himself) provided us with the funds to get our organization started. From the very beginning, they believed in what we were trying to do and their sponsorship allowed us to get started and to get the word out. Their contributions paid for the jerseys that I wore all year, for flyers and brochures to spread the word, and to keeping my bicycle running throughout the year. Without their faith in us, we wouldn’t have been able to get the wheels rolling.

Along with Laura and Allan, we were supported by other sponsors who really made this first victory in the war possible – Rich Margolis and Jeremy Meller of RJM Computer Services who provided us with web space and maintenance to our Connor’s Army website. Gregory Burke at Solid Printwear got us started with printing up the first yellow jerseys for the project. When the weather turned warmer Nelso Quimby at Elso Graphics became the next artisan to provide us with cycling jerseys. He now plans to offer cycling jerseys to other cyclists as a special order service. Dave Louden at Louden’s Minuteman Press has been incredibly helpful in printing up all our flyers and brochures to help get the word out to the public. Howard Feinstein through his Dunkin’ Donuts provided us with refreshments at our turn around point and we thank you for making sure we stayed warm today. But one of our biggest supporters and sponsors have been Chuck and Denise Adams and Darren Muccio at Adams Cycles. They literally kept me rolling all year long and helped in so more ways than I can count – without them there would be many times during the year that I would have just been stranded and not able to put in the mileage I needed to complete this journey.

I thank all of you so very much – you’ve been incredibly supportive and there is no way Connor’s Army could have succeeded without you. I am a large part of who I am today thanks to each of the people I’ve already thanked who helped me every mile of this journey. Those of you who have donated your money and in some cases your time to Connor’s Army.

But I would be completely remiss if I didn’t thank one last group of people without whom this never would have happened and that is my family. My family has been through so much this year – putting up with my obsession, my moods, my bicycle addiction and my manic fear of “we’re never going to reach our goal”. Not only have they been so supportive, Sarah decided she wanted to do something of her own and she started Connor’s Army Junior, raising $1,000 for cancer research on her own.
But the person who this party should really be celebrating is my wife Amy. Without her I never ever would be able to do this and none of us would be celebrating this small success. It was Amy who has always figured out the logistics for making this work and keeping it all together so that all I had to do was drag myself out of bed and get on the bike. It was Amy who worried every day until I called her from school as to whether or not I was hit by a car again,(like what happened two years ago). It was Amy who sent out the press releases , updated the website, kept the contact with ACS, solicited vendors and sponsors, set up the party and so many, many other details over the last year. I can never thank her enough or love her enough for all that she has done – this day really belongs to her.

Thank you for supporting us, listening to me for a bit too long, and now please join me in thanking every single person who made this day possible. Amy and I have already spoken about the need to keep Connor’s Army continuing and we’re hoping that the Victory Ride will become a yearly event with different mileages to raise even more money for cancer research and to provide cyclists with a way of their own to combat cancer using their passion for cycling as the tool. Also, we have planned for Connor’s Army to go on tour in the summer of 2011 as the whole Connor Clan heads out to California and we (that is Sarah and I, with the rest of the family following in a support vehicle) cycle back to Long Island in an attempt to raise an additional $50,000 for cancer research.

And now, if my wife Amy, Sarah and my sisters Winnie and TaMara could join us onstage we'd all like to thank you for giving us such support."

We Are the Champions, My Friends!

So we should have had some music by Queen playing when we got back from the ride today but in all the other preparations for today’s Victory Ride, the boom box was the last thing we were thinking about.

Today was the day for the First Annual Connor’s Army Victory Ride! After a year of planning, commuting, logging miles and generally driving my poor wife crazy, it came down to today finally being the culmination of all of our hard work. But what is it that Robert Burns said, “the best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley?” Well, we’ve been watching the weather for about two months (courtesy of Farmer’s Almanac first, then National Weather Service) and up until about two days ago the weather forecast was that yesterday it would be rainy but today would be clear. Well, the weather itself apparently didn’t read the reports because today the dawn came up overcast and the report was for light rain beginning about 10:00 (the start time for our ride) and ending about 1:00 (a little after our estimated end time) with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees.

Due in part I think to the weather forecast and the distance we ended up with 22 people registered for the ride out of the 100 we had originally hoped to attract. We even had two people show up and register on the spot but I think they elected to wait later in the day and do their own 25 mile circuit. Anyway, we still had eight intrepid souls willing to brave the elements – myself, Chuck Gleason, Steve Jimenez, Charles Elioseff, Paul Orzel, Michael Roux, Robert Litzke, and Efrim Sherman. All in all, a stout showing considering it was drizzling as we started out. We were a mixed batch of riders ranging from an A+ rider down to a C+ rider. We just basically stayed together and had a great time riding in the rain. As we started out the temperature wasn’t too bad and I found myself laughing a lot just from the sheer joy of riding and the reason we were doing this.

As we got to Stillwell to start the last two miles to the turnaround point we were deluged by a monsoon rain that caused visibility to go down to about 20 feet – it was rough. And of course, to my own chagrin, it was about 60 seconds after I had just said that it looked like it wasn’t going to rain too badly today. So, between the rain and the fact that the pace had been relatively slow, Chuck and I mashed the gears going up Stillwell. I looked down at one point and saw that I was going 17mph up my daily nemesis! Amazing what a little (okay a lot) cold rain will do for your motivation.

At Syosset High School we had coffee, hot chocolate and donuts courtesy of Howard Feinstein (the parent of one of my students and the owner of a few Dunkin’ Donuts franchises) which was welcome considering the wet deluge we had just endured. We couldn’t stay long, however so we fueled up and headed back – just in time for it to start sleeting! At that point I was warned not to say another word about weather!

The ride back was a little higher paced as we all wanted nothing more than to get back and get warm. I myself lost all feeling in my hands about four miles out from the finish and spent the first hour after we stopped shivering no matter how much hot coffee I drank. But I think I found myself being warmed up by two more important things; the fact that we had just raised over $13,000 for Cancer Research, and that two of my sisters and numerous friends who were all cancer survivors were there to welcome us back. These were some of the same faces that had been motivating me to ride for over a year and as all of our friends and family welcomed us back the feeling that we did something that mattered washed over us.

After my teeth stopped chattering so much, I tried to give a speech to thank everyone for coming, for supporting Connor’s Army over the last year and most importantly to thank my wife for without her this ride would never have happened. However, my thoughts got all jumbled and I had to fight back the tears a number of times because despite having logged over 2200 miles, I felt as if I had done nothing compared to these women and men who had fought and won their battles against this damn disease! I truly feel humble when I compare myself to them – all I had to do was get on my bike, point it in the right direction and keep pedaling. What they have overcome is truly heroic.

It’s for this reason that Connor’s Army will not stop until the war on Cancer is truly won. I won’t be doing the year-long commute/logging of miles (although I’ll still keep riding my bike as much as I can because it’s now who I am), but we are going to continue the “Victory Ride” going each year, adding a longer distance next year and perhaps a kids’ event in the future (maybe in the spring) to the schedule as a way to allow local cyclists a chance to use their passion for cycling to help wage war against this awful killer. Connor’s Army Junior will continue as Sarah has decided to continue her fight and use her bicycle to raise money for various causes. And, perhaps the most important, we are going to spend the next two years gearing up for what we’re calling Connor’s Army XC – our plan to take the whole family on the road in the summer of 2010 as I cycle from San Diego, CA back to Northport, NY. We’ll need sponsors, donations and lots of logistical support but our goal is for me (and Sarah at times) to ride all the way back and raise at least $50,000 for cancer research. So if any of you out there know anyone who might be interested in helping out, tell them to log onto www.Connorsarmy.org and see how they can help with next year’s Victory Ride or with Connor’s Army XC.

Stay well and I'll (still) see you on the road!