Eastern Bloc Cycling Club
Forums » Charity Rides/Events
Eastern Bloc Cycling Club Tour of the Litchfield Hills Rest stop
Hi Pat -
We're not able to help with Litchfield Hills since Wyatt has a race elsewhere that day, but I saw where you were looking for volunteers (an e-mail perhaps) for some other events. We ARE signed up to work Tokeneke, and I also would appreciate it if you could put me on the list of EBCC folks who can work clean-up for the Rocky Hill / Marlborough CX races again this year. - Jeff
> Arghhhhh! My friend Peg bailed out of helping at the morning rest stop. If anyone else could help out I'd greatly appreciate it. I can't believe a club as large as ours can't find six members to man a rest stop. I see what other clubs do, We're useless!!!!
Don,
I, and I'm sure many others, feel your pain. While I certainly don't volunteer as much as you, Pat, the entire Cote family, and many others (you know who you are) we try to do our fare share (TOLH and the Tokeneke Road Race) under the philosophy that if no one volunteers, no one rides or races. Sort of figure that if everyone helped out just a little, your number wouldn't come up very often. Helping at the tear down last year, was particularly impresses with Pat and the others organizers who start with transporting/setup at about 3 am and end with tear down/storage well into the night time. When discussing the need for volunteers with most folks, the statement we get repeatedly is, "Why would you volunteer, I'm going to ride".
If no one else fesses up, Betsy and I will work the rest stop. Prefer the 12-3 slot, but can work the 9-12 slot if needed. Could even be there from 9-3, let's just get this done.
May bring some potato chips just to remind folks of Laura's famous rest stop all those years.
Tokeneke (and at least a dozen other races I know of) wouldn't even happen without the efforts of the Cote family. The club will be ramping up our volunteer recruiting efforts for Tokeneke this week. I just received a email for the organizers that I will be driving the lead official car for the masters 40+ which I am equally excited about, and as fellow racer, terrified by at the same time ;)
Don has gone to great lengths to recruit for the TOTLH rest area which is very appreciated. I think we will be OK with he and Bonnie on the AM shift but it never hurts to get an extra person there if we can.
Beth and I will be starting from the park at 7AM and should be arriving at the rest area around 11AM. We will be ending our ride there to help Ron with the afternoon shift. I may have another volunteer or two coming in at the same time.
Walt, you are welcome to join us if you would like to ride and volunteer and I will arrange for rides back to Coe Park in one of the SAG vans. Please thank Betsy for us for also volunteering, the more the merrier.
For the last few years several folks (Eric, Steve and Kris for instance) have completed the ride and stuck around to help us clean up afterwards. This is also greatly appreciated. Late afternoon cleanup is when we could use the most help because as you can imagine, people are tired after a long day.
Walt, thanks for expressing what I am sure many of us are feeling. Events like the TOTLH, ERRACE, Angel Ride, etc. etc. are fun to participate in but even more gratifying when you can offer your time to help out. These events require a lot of work to pull off and will cease to exist without volunteers. It would be a shame to lose them.
Peg will not be working the rest stop; family responsibilities, but Gina Maginnis has volunteered so we'll have the three needed. See you Sunday.
Thanks Don! I will have a table and tent sent up with the first support van (and a 3rd bottle pump). I think we should set up on Lower Road at the furnace like we have in previous years. It's more convenient for riders and more visible if we are up close to the road instead of down by the furnace.
See you around 11!
Pat
Pat, I left my chair. Should you be able to drop it at Benidorm, Mike or I will swing by and pick it up. Let me know if that works for you or we can make other arrangements.
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the Tour of the Litchfield Hills yesterday! Don, Sue, Bonnie, Ron, Beth, Emma and Drew did a great job keeping riders fueled up well into the late afternoon. Walt, Betsy, Eric, Steve, Brett, Kris, Jon T, Mike P, Beth, Ron (and anyone else that helped prior to us making it back to the park) made clean up go very quickly this year. Please forgive me and reply here if I left anyone out that deserves recognition for helping yesterday.
Thanks also to the Doug and Jan at Benidorm for the mechanical support at the event, the bike donation, and all of the year round support of the event organization.
Lastly, thanks to everyone who participated in helping us raise money for the Center for Cancer Care Fund. I will forward the fundraising tally when we know the final numbers but I think it's safe to say it was another generous year.
Bonnie, I have your chair and will drop it off at the shop tonight.
Betsy, I hope for both our sakes that it wasn't poison ivy your bike was resting on ;)
Pat
Bonnie, I still have your chair, didn't make it to the shop in time last night. I'll be dropping it off tonight just before closing time.
Pat