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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."
"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."
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