Exceeding Expectations: The Breast Cancer Awareness Ride

Whew…that day blew by!!

I finished with my last minute items at 2:30 am on Friday (errrrr….Saturday morning) and crashed for a few hours….until 5:30 am. I was up and out the door getting my last minute things down to one of the vehicles that was hauling gear then back at the house at 6:30 am to ride out.

The morning was cool, but watching the sun come up not only warmed me but my heart as well—our prayers were answered—the weather is going to be cooperative!! I rode down with a group of four members—all who had volunteered to help get set up to face the unknown number of registrants.

Registration Table

The Mountain Shadow Riders have a few new ideas on deck—a ride t-shirt, ride pins, and auction items—so a good turnout weighed heavy on our minds. Still, we managed to have humor and joke with each other while setting up. It was early in the morning, but the adrenalin driven excitement was palpable throughout the group! I think the four jumbo sized cups of coffee might have had something to do with my excitement as well!

Hanging Posters--I'm the girl in all pink.....

The auction prizes

Ms. BS, Sweetcheeks and The Rainbow Wahine funnin'

By 9:00 am, the parking lot of Western Omelet was full of bikers and motorcycles and everyone was busy. Everything appeared to be going smoothly and without incident so our group needed to head out and do the ride—to get down to Thunder and Buttons for the post-ride events.

The ride committee did an excellent job! The ride was local and included some roads in the city that I had never ridden. I was treated to some beautiful views of Colorado Springs. The ride was a memory ride—I had to pay attention to the surroundings and answer questions on the designated stops. Sigh. Did I remember the name of the church that was across the street of Western Omelet? Not on your life!! Just my karma, I never pay attention to the right things!

My thanks to the ride committee as well as the leader of our little group for doing an excellent job!

Down at Thunder and Buttons, the activity level was high—chance drawing tickets were being drawn as well as the ever important filling of human’s fuel tanks—stomachs!! The Mountain Shadow Riders members were busy doing various activities: from scoring the ride contest sheets, selling T-shirts, and working on stage drawing tickets and doing the auctions.

What a day it was! I believe the new implementations were a success—our auctions brought in over $1,000 alone!! The sellout of pins and the success of t-shirt sales also boosted our bottom line contribution. While the finally tally of dollars won’t be known until our Chapter meeting on Saturday, the word that we met and exceeded our goal of a $5,000 contribution is rumored from the Chapter executives. Whooooohooooooo!!

I know that the success of our ride couldn’t have been done without the hard work of our members. The ride, donation, promotions, and registration committees did wonderful jobs. Every member that participated in getting prizes, hanging flyers, getting the word out or doing whatever was necessary deserves high praise and has my thanks.

I also want to thank the various people that were outside our group that helped support us by promoting our event. They were the people that are in other organizations who supported us by inviting their members to join our cause. The help aided the turnout. My thanks to all of them as well!

We also received a number of suggestions for improvement of the ride for next year. Thank you for caring enough to want to improve our event!

Saturday night was quickly upon us—I pulled my Fatboy in the garage around 7:30 pm. It was a long day.

Sunday’s weather awoke to rain and cold temps. Thank goodness the weather held. It seems that we are forecasted to have snow this week. Brrrrrrrrr…

Again, thanks for all the members, the participants who turned out to support our event, and all the folks who contributed to helping make our Breast Cancer Awareness Ride a success. Without those who participated, our event could not have happened.

Finally, our cause. One in eight women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime. That is one woman every three minutes. We are determined to make a difference in the statistics. The entire amount of proceeds raised Saturday goes towards the fund to educate, screen and treat patients in our community stricken with this disease as well as supporting national research to find a cure!

I will say….thank you for supporting our breasts!!

Keep the Shiny Side Up!

~The Rainbow Wahine

OH….and my ride basket was the Road and Rail Ride. My son’s love of trains was the inspiration for my basket!!