2012 Team Velo Girls AIDS/Lifecycle Partnership

Each year, Velo Girls chooses a charity partner to support. For 2012, we're thrilled to be working with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Our support will be multi-pronged, with sponsorship of AIDS/Lifecycle, a team for the event, and additional fundraising and awareness campaigns. Also, Team Velo Girls will be leading a 20-week series of progressive training rides leading up to AIDS/LifeCycle in June.

Join Team Velo Girls on this 20-week series of co-ed rides designed to prepare you to take part in AIDS/Lifecycle. All series rides will meet at Woodside Town Hall in Woodside. You do not need to be registered for ALC to participate in this series, but please note that you will be required to listen to the ALC safety speech, sign an ALC waiver and that all ALC rules apply. RSVP to ALC@velogirls.com

January 21st – 35 miles
February 4th – 40 miles
February 18th – 45 miles
March 3rd – 55 miles
March 17th – 60 miles
March 31st – 70 miles
April 14th – 80 miles
April 28th – 90 miles
May 12th – 100 miles
May 26th -- celebration ride + BBQ


You'll find details about this series and all our rides + events on the Velo Girls calendar at:


http://www.velogirls.com/calendar.php


If you'd like to support Team Velo Girls for AIDS/Lifecycle, you can join our team as a rider or roadie, or make a donation on our behalf to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.  You'll find more information about our team and the event here:


http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/teamvelogirls


How easy is that?  You can ride, you can roadie, you can donate.  Won't you join us in supporting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation this year?

Join Velo Girls on AIDS/LifeCycle in June 2012

Hey friends + fans!  Have you ever imagined how incredible it would be to ride your bike every single day for a whole week?  Maybe even ride all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles (it's all downhill, don't you know)?  And, in the process, raise funds + awareness for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation?  Yeah, we have, too!

As a matter of fact, many Velo Girls members are alumni of AIDS/LifeCycle (and its predecessor event the California AIDS Ride).  I started riding my bicycle again in 1999 to participate in CAR7.  I hadn't been on a bike in over a decade.  I was woefully not fit.  I smoked and drank.  And I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but it sounded like a BIG challenge, and I was all about BIG challenges at the time so I signed up.  And it was a life-changing experience.

If you're looking for a life-changing experience, if you want to do something really good for your body and your community, and do it with a supportive group of women, then join the Velo Girls team for ALC 11.   We'll train together.  We'll fundraise together.  And we'll support each other on this incredible journey.

And if you prefer a support role, you can participate as a roadie -- one of the hundreds of crew people who make the entire event happen -- from bike techs, to rest stop staff, to massage therapists and lunch crew.  It's hard work but your contribution makes it possible for the riders to ride their bikes each day.  Roadies aren't required to fundraise (but are encouraged to do so).

Sound like fun?  Learn more at a special Velo Girls AIDS/LifeCycle info meeting on Thursday, November 10th at 6:30pm at the Presidio Sports Basement.  RSVP to Lorri@velogirls.com

turning wheels for kids 2010

were you one of those lucky kids who had a bicycle? wait! don't all children have bicycles? nope, and that's a down-right shame. Susan Runsvold thought so, too, so in 2003 she began planning what she hoped would be a project with her own friends -- collecting donations to purchase a few bikes to give to children who might not otherwise have one. in 2005, Turning Wheels for Kids was born.

Turning Wheels for Kids has grown to become a fabulous holiday tradition. with the support of the silicon valley community (individuals and businesses), each year the organization is able to purchase 2,000+ children's bikes. and then 700+ community volunteers (including Velo Girls) come together on one day in December to assemble these bikes. it's a festive, fun-filled day and the end result is that 2,000+ children from all over silicon valley will receive the holiday gift of a bicycle.

join us on Saturday, December 11th, for the annual Turning Wheels for Kids Big Bike Build. Velo Girls will once again have a co-ed team of volunteers for the event and we'd love to have you join us. the Bike Build is held in San Jose from 8:00am until all the bikes are built (usually around noon). you don't need to be a bicycle mechanic to participate and we welcome men + women (and mature youth, too). it's a great holiday tradition.

if you'd like to join the Velo Girls team, just email Lorri@velogirls.com

how can we be there if we aren't going anywhere?

Velo Girls, Michelle Goldberg and Patty Namba, participated in a unique fundraising ride. Michelle shares her experience:

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A little background on 100 MILES OF NOWHERE..... Three years ago, Elden Nelson of FatCyclist.com fame, decided to ride 100 miles in honor of his wife Susan's battle with metastatic breast cancer. He wanted it to be a ride with no destination, just to ride for the sake of riding, and rode it on his rollers.

Last year, he had the ride again but opened it up for people to join him. The only requirement was that you ride nowhere, again, just for the sake of riding and supporting folks fighting cancer around the world. There was an entry fee, but all "sponsors" gave 100% of the entry to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. A special call out to Twin Six, as they have been a HUGE supporter of FatCyclist.com and Susan's battle that eventually took her life, working with Fatty to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to LAF!!!

I had registered last year, but wasn't able to do the ride on the arranged date due to having the nasty Flu. This year, Fatty has the ride again -- version 3. He loosened the requirements a bit - you still had to ride nowhere, but you could do as much or as little as you wanted to ride and you could do it on any day. I told my friend Patty about the ride and she, being as insane as I am, thought it would be a great experience. We had decided that if we couldn't each do 100 miles, we would at least do 100 miles as a team... hence Team PaMi was born.

Team PaMi started out with a warm up on the Los Gatos Creek Trail for the first 10 miles. As the trail got very crowded, we moved our adventures to the city streets of Willow Glen. After riding several streets to design a loop, we settled in on a 1.1 mile course with a minimum of stop signs and car traffic. Around and around we went... and went.... and went.

Mile 25 brought us to our first break as it was time for lunch.

Mile 35 brought us to our second break and tent setup for LiveSTRONG. Our roadie, Heather, got us set up with rocking tunes and a TV showing Lance racing in the 2005 Tour de France. We had lots of LAF/LiveSTRONG brochures available and even Guidebooks in case anyone wanted/needed one. We had some visitors, but it was generally pretty quiet for Heather, who manned the tent while we rode.

We kept riding, and riding, and riding, around and around and around, with a few visits to the Creek Trail to break it up a bit. Neighbors were starting to wonder. One neighbor, sitting on her porch, eventually fell asleep watching us go around and around and around.

At one point, I asked Patty if we were there yet. Her response was "How can we be there if we aren't going anywhere?" So very true that was.

As the afternoon winds started picking up and temperatures started dropping in anticipation of the rainstorm expected on Sunday, Team Pami had already accomplished our goal - to ride 100 miles as a team. We rode a total of 115 miles in all - Patty finished up with 60 miles, yours truly with 55 miles. Of those miles, we did about 18 on the Creek Trail. That meant about 37 times around the hood. Patty said she'd never ridden that many miles never shifting her gears. I shifted a bit on the Creek Trail to mix it up a bit.

The day was almost like a time-lapsed series of photographs. Every few minutes we saw changes in the houses we passed, cars parked on the street, people walking their dogs. Quite the experience!

Fight Like Susan!

Michelle

the BEST day of my entire life

last night was the captains' meeting for the Turning Wheels for Kids Bike Build. the room was filled to SRO with enthusiastic volunteers from the community, all organizing teams for the December 12th event.

the meeting started with an inspirational video -- I have to admit a few tears in my eyes. and then Susan Runsvold, founder of TWFK spoke. she told of this crazy idea she had to provide a few bikes to needy kids. in the first year (2004), 70 bikes were given to children. this year, we'll build more than 2,000 bikes (and about 800 requests were turned down due to limited financial resources)! she read some of the quotes from the children who've received bikes. this one stuck with me: "today is the BEST day of my entire life!"

how often can we say that we've helped a child have the best day of her life?

the average cost per bike is $80.

Velo Girls is helping the good folks at Turning Wheels for Kids raise funds to help more children have the BEST day of their entire lives.

can you help? click here -- every little bit helps!

Velo Girls announces charity partnership with Trips for Kids

Velo Girls is excited to announce a new partnership with Trips for Kids in 2010.

For more than 20 years, Trips For Kids^® (TFK^®) Marin has been providing lessons in self-confidence, environmental awareness, and healthy habits to disadvantaged youth through the simple act of having fun on mountain bikes. Trips For Kids started in Marin and has grown into an international organization with more than 60 chapters operating in the United States, Canada, and Israel.

Trips For Kids Marin serves at-risk youth throughout the San Francisco Bay area, working with over 200 local organizations. The core offering of mountain bike rides is supplemented by the Earn-A-Bike programs and the Re-Cyclery bicycle thrift shop.

Velo Girls has been partnering with Trips for Kids on their annual Girls Day in the Dirt since 2004. Check out the awesome photos from the 2009 event here:

Girls Day in the Dirt 2009 Photos

For 2010 we've decided to step our support up a notch. In 2010 Velo Girls will:

• provide volunteers + program for four Girls Days in the Dirt.
• provide fundraising support utilizing the Plus 3 Network.
• organize a donation drive for bikes + gear to be donated to the TFK Re-Cyclery program.
• donate $1 of each Velo Girls membership to Trips for Kids.
• actively promote the goodness that is Trips for Kids!

Join Velo Girls at the Turning Wheels for Kids Big Bike Build!

I think this is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Turning Wheels for Kids is a great organization. Each year they build thousands of brand spanking new children's bikes and donate them to youth in Silicon Valley. In order to do this, they receive donations throughout the year from corporations and individuals to purchase the bikes and then, in just one day, hundreds of volunteers come together to assemble the bikes. It's a super-fun day and folks from all over Northern CA donate their time to assemble the bikes -- folks from companies, bike clubs, bike shops, professional sports teams, and other civic organizations.



Velo Girls (and our male counterparts, the Velo Boys) will once again be volunteering to assemble bikes. The Big Bike Build will take place on Saturday, December 12th at the San Jose Convention Center (time tba but probably 8:00am - 1:00pm)

You don't need to be a bike mechanic to build a children's bike -- many of the bikes are single speed with coaster brakes -- even I can do that!

We are very limited in the number of volunteers who can participate in the event, so if you're interested, RSVP to Lorri@velogirls.com

TWFK is also looking for volunteers to help un-load all the bikes from the trucks on Friday, December 11th @ 6:00pm. If you can help with this part of the project, just send me an email -- Lorri@velogirls.com



And last but not least, let's help raise funds for TWFK this year! Last year was the inaugural year for the BIKE BUCK CUP trophy, awarded to the team who raises the most funds for TWFK. Almaden Cycle and Touring Club (ACTC) captured the trophy last year and Jim Schallau, the team leader of this group, has thrown the gauntlet! In the registration form Jim says, “ACTC expects to again take home the Bike Buck Cup!” Let's see if we can give ACTC a run for their money! Go ahead, click the paypal button and help put some kids on bikes: