...and here we go!

Hi everyone! This blog is my official kick-off for Bike MS 2013 fundraising. Bike MS is in Logan, Utah this year on June 29th and 30th. This is a couple of months earlier than last year's event - which is why I'm starting to reach out to you all a bit earlier this year. I'll be discussing that change a bit more towards the end of this post...That, plus some recaps from last year, and I'll show you the 2012 Chapter Annual Report - so you can see more about how your money was used last year - after the jump...


(A note about the blogging: I'm trying a blog this year, I think it will be a better way to keep you all up-to-date - more flexibility for what I'd like to post and generally easier to work with than the comments section in the "stock" fundraising site. I'll be sharing blog updates on facebook as well, and am shooting for weekly updates.)

Okay...on to the good part.

The first thing I wanted to do was to thank you all for your awesome support last year! Some highlights...

• We (you and I) were the top fundraisers for Bike MS Idaho 2012, with a total of $7,745 raised!
• We (you and I) were the top individual fundraisers for all of the MS Society events in the state of Idaho last year! (among all of the Walk MS and Bike MS events)
• Our team, Team Allstate, was the top fundraising team by a wide margin, raising over $12,000. (Our team captain, Eric Jeglum, was the 2nd highest individual fundraiser!) Very proud to ride with this group of men, and we had a lot of fun last year at the ride.
• Bike MS Idaho 2012 grossed $42,261 total.

Team Allstate (from left to right): Greg Goins, Me, Eric Jeglum, Doug Jenkins, Steve Baggerly

As I mentioned in my recap email from last year's event, my family and I are very grateful for the support - it makes me proud to know all of you. And I hope I can can count on your support again this year.

On a side note, The MS Society - Utah / Southern Idaho chapter 2012 Annual Report is available here. It's a quick read, and does a nice job of laying out the money in, money out for the chapter last year. Some highlights:

• 86% of chapter income comes from events like Bike MS and Walk MS. Bike MS Utah and Bike MS Idaho together made up 68% of the total chapter income. 68%! That's a huge number, highlighting how dependent the chapter is on the biking events.
• Only 3% of the total chapter expenses were for "management and general" and 13% went towards fundraising. The remaining 84% of the expenses all went to local programs and services, national programs, and research. In other words, 84% of the total expenses went directly towards improving the lives of those impacted by MS in our local communities, and nationwide.

Well, you can read the report yourself if you'd like - but the point I'd like to make is that Bike MS is a vitally important event for our chapter of the MS Society, and that our chapter is a very efficient and effective steward of the money you donate.

Now...if you compare the Bike MS Idaho fundraising total ($42,261) with the Bike MS Utah total from the annual report ($1,622,087) you will get some idea of why we're consolidating rides this year. While we're disappointed that we won't be riding in beautiful McCall, Idaho this year, this change is a good thing. I'll devote a future blog post to what the future holds for MS Society biking events in Idaho, and Boise in particular. But, for now, the take-away is: we'll save even more expenses by consolidating rides, meaning more money will go towards the good stuff - local programs and services, and research.

Anyway, thanks for reading and for your continued support - and I'm looking forward to sharing the experience of training for and riding in Bike MS 2013 with you all again this year!

For more information on this year's ride, or to make a donation, click here: Bike MS 2013: Harmon's Best Dam Ride

I'll close with a few more pictures from last year's event...

Team Allstate at Secesh Summit

Our pace line on Day 2

And I mentioned we had some fun...

Now, on to training hard, raising more money, and making new memories this year...