With the amount of international visibility professional cyclists have, it is no wonder that there are numerous foundations setup that help various charities and philanthropies.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation - The foundation with (easily) the most visibility worldwide. As a cancer survivor himself, Lance Armstrong has not taken a passive stance in his foundation. He is actively involved in many aspects of his foundation and the sheer amount of money raised is unbelieveable. Just through the wristbands alone, around 60 million have been sold. At $1 a bracelet, that's $60,000,000. Considering the amount of money that is raised through corporate sponsors and charity events, it's unbeliveable how much money has been raised through this foundation. Cancer affects the lives of millions of people (the LiveStrong site states that 10 million Americans are currently living with, through, or beyond cancer) and the Lance Armstrong Foundation is leading the way to help all in finding strength.
The Davis Phinney Foundation - Although not a household name, Davis Phinney is the winningest American cyclist ever, 328 career victories. An Olympic Bronze medal from the 1984 Olympics, two stages of the Tour de France, and a USPRO Champion. Davis is truly an amazing cyclist. Just a few years ago, Davis was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Since then, he has taken an active stance in raising money for Parkinson's Research. Parkinson's affects 100-250 people out of every 100,000. It is great that although Davis is currently dealing with the disease, he is still able to raise hundreds of thousands (over $500,000) for research.
The Tyler Hamilton Foundation - As stated on his foundation's site, Tyler Hamilton became involved when a friend (whose mother suffered from Multiple Sclerosis) introduced him to the National MS Society. Since that date, Tyler has become involved in many aspects of MS fundraising. Ending within the next few days is a auction that is raising money for the Tyler Hamilton Foundation. That auction can be found here.
The Fast Freddie Foundation - Leading the way in fundraising to support the growth of youth cycling is Fast Freddie himself, Fred Rodriguez. Freddie has given his support to numerous events where youth cycling was to benefit. Likewise, you probably cannot find a cyclist more open to signing autographs or taking pictures with junior cyclists than Freddie himself.
These four American foundations are great places to make donations to. Through this posting, I am asking anyone who has made donations to any of these donations to post a comment with how much you donated. Let's try to reach $1,000. If we haven't reached that point, let's all pitch in and help these charities out. Part 2 of this post will be an update of how much we all have helped out these foundations.
The Fast Freddie Foundation - Leading the way in fundraising to support the growth of youth cycling is Fast Freddie himself, Fred Rodriguez. Freddie has given his support to numerous events where youth cycling was to benefit. Likewise, you probably cannot find a cyclist more open to signing autographs or taking pictures with junior cyclists than Freddie himself.
These four American foundations are great places to make donations to. Through this posting, I am asking anyone who has made donations to any of these donations to post a comment with how much you donated. Let's try to reach $1,000. If we haven't reached that point, let's all pitch in and help these charities out. Part 2 of this post will be an update of how much we all have helped out these foundations.
5 comments:
*ahem* Don't forget that you also have the opportunity to sponsor me in the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride this summer. My wife has diabetes and I'm a strong supporter of the ADA's research and education efforts.
Very true Fritz. By way of this comment, I challenge all of us to raise $500+ for Fritz as well.
So far, I have raised $300 for the Davis Phinney Foundation through an autographed 7-Eleven jersey (signed by Davis, Tom Schuler, and Frankie Andreu) donation at the VeloNews fundraiser in Philadelphia in June 2005 (actually won by a by a Lampre Caffita rider). Let's raise $700 for some of the other charities as well! Please post if you have donated to any/all of these charities.
My wife is a cancer survivor and we have donated enough money in the past couple years to cover your 1000 dollar threshold:-)
yes
it is all important that we do our part
all of these causes are admirable
all of these issues need to be approached
science just does not move fast enough
maybe it is time to shut down the space race and take that money and those minds and concentrate of the health of the occupants of this planet
and
the health of this planet as well
over the last 2 years I have raised over 10,000 dollars for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I was able to accomplish this by teaching spin classes at the 2 gyms I teach at, my nephew had AML Leukemia at 7 mos old, had a bone marrow transplant and is now cancer free, doing fantastic. The LAF is a wonderful foundation that continues to grow and spread the word about fighting Cancer, supporting those in need and advocating our government to take a stand against Cancer by committing funds for research and recovery.
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