The Prouty’s registration for 2010 is now open – log in (TheProuty.org) and join Team Wicked Philanthropy!

Registration Details:
When: July 10th
Who: Team Wicked Philanthropy
Where: Hanover, NH
Route: 20, 50, or 100 mile bikes routes and 3, 6 or 12 mile walk/run routes.
Registration cost: $0
Fundraising minimum: $150

Join us! There’s something for everyone: from a 5k walk on Saturday in Hanover, NH, to a two-day 200-mile ride starting Friday in Manchester, NH, to everything in between…
You’ll have the time of your life as you bike or walk along rural roads or wooded trails in the beautiful Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont. YOU have the power to make a difference in the fight against cancer.

The original post can be found here: http://www.wickedlocal.com/concord/homepage/x1758551698/3-QUESTIONS-Concord-cyclist-plans-coastal-ride

3 QUESTIONS: Concord cyclist plans coastal ride

Courtesy photo Concord resident Matt Solar, left, at the finish of the 2005 Prouty Century Bike Ride in Hanover, N.H., with Adrian Ionescu, center, and Mike Morris.

By Patrick Ball/Staff Writer

Thu Dec 03, 2009, 01:40 PM EST

Concord -

After years of PanMass Challenges and annual Prouty Century Bike Rides, Concord resident Matt Solar and his team of philanthropic cyclists next summer will take the road less traveled, biking from Concord to Bar Harbor.

In a self-supported ride dubbed the “C2C,” Solar, Taylor Moran-Gates and Adrian Ionescu — members of a Wicked Philanthropy team formed in 2004 — will bike from Concord to the summit of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, Maine, to benefit an as-yet determined environmental group protecting the coastline they’ll follow along their ride.

Solar says they haven’t worked out all the logistics of the C2C, scheduled for July 29, 2010, but their goal is to follow Coastal Route 1. “How we get there is going to take some bushwhacking and trail-making,” he said in a recent interview.

Tell me about Wicked Philanthropy and what you guys are all about.

I’m working to organize a group called Wicked Philanthropy, and essentially what it is, is a group of friends who are trying to do different physical challenges to raise money and awareness for different causes. Historically, we’ve done the Prouty up in New Hampshire and the PMC here in Massachusetts. Those have both been for cancer. And our new one, which we’re doing as a self-supported ride, is the C2C, which is a 300-plus mile three-day trip. The group started in 2004, when Jeff Adams and I rode in the PanMass Challenge for the first time. Every year we wanted to pull more friends into it and sort of just became this group. Wicked Philanthropy as a name, sort of spawned off of an adventure racing team we had. We wanted to have a different image, not as clean-cut as some of these smaller, less aggressive charities. We want to push everything a little bit, whether it’s the fundraising goals or the charities we take on.

Why is it important for you to give to these causes in this way?

I’ve always enjoyed riding, I like spending time with my friends and I have an entrepreneurial spirit, so the idea of founding something as a group was really exciting, went hand-in-hand. In 2002 we lost a friend to cancer, but we didn’t have the resources to ride the PMC, which had a large fundraising minimum, until 2004. Once we bit the bullet and decided to do it, it just took off. As far as the environment, I fish quite a bit up on the Maine coast, and we’ve seen quite a bit of habitat destruction up there. So that’s been near and dear and, for the C2C, we’re looking for someone, like a grassroots organization working on that. We’ve found a couple and we’re working with our current sponsors, GU Energy Gel and Wicked Joe’s of Maine, to identify different causes we can donate to. And the cycling is what we’re good at. We’re all young and physically fit, relatively speaking, so it was a natural fit for us to use one to help the other.

How can people help you out?

People can help us out in one of several ways. One is, obviously we’re always looking for riders to join us in local rides or some of the longer rides, such as the Concord to Cadillac. We’re always looking for individual to help sponsor us and donate to our cause. And the third, which is probably the most important right now, is we’re looking for corporate sponsors to sponsor our team and help us pay for some of the logistics along the ride and make donations to some of our causes, whether it’s cancer research or an environmental cause. We will be submitting our jerseys — our final designs — probably in the February or March timeframes, so if corporate sponsors want to be on our jerseys, then we would ask that they get involved before then. Individuals for financial sponsorship can get involved any time, even after the rides, so probably until October 2010. Individuals looking to ride, I’d say as soon as possible.

Keep an eye out for this Thursday for an article “Three Questions With Wicked Philanthropy” on page two of The Concord Journal (December 3rd, 2009).  The article will also be available online on the Homepage or Lifestyles page.  (Direct URL to follow)

In the article Matt Solar (WP) talks with The Concord Journal’s Patrick Ball about our route, our history, and how people can get involved in helping.

We’re excited to bring the additional awareness to our ride and would love to hear your thoughts on the article.

Wicked Philanthropy and Wicked Joe’s of Brunswick, Maine are working to put together a sponsorship program. Details are yet to be finalized but here’s a mock up of what our 2010 jerseys might look like (pictures is a training-tee, not pictures is the cycling jersey/bib).  You can check out Wicked Joe’s online, at http://WickedJoe.com.

(Updated image 11/30/09 based off feedback)

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

Here’s the first version of our 2010 training shirt.  I expect our cycling kits will look similar but this will give you a feel of what we’re looking to do.  I expect we will have 3 articles of team clothing, a training t-shirt (pictured here), and a cycling jersey and shorts (examples to follow).  I will continue to post updates as we gain additional sponsors.  Please contact Matt (Matt@WickedPhilanthropy.org) if you have any questions or would like to discuss sponsorship options.

We’re very excited to have GU Energy as a sponsor for Wicked Philanthropy’s 2010 season as they’re the best energy product on the market and we’ll need all the energy we can get to ride 300 miles to raise money for charity.

A bit about GU… “From 1991 until today, athletes the world over have come to the same conclusion: GU works. Our Berkeley-based sports nutrition company started with our original GU Energy Gel, a revolutionary and more effective method to keep athletes fueled during exercise. Since then, GU has continued to improve the recipe, incorporating the latest scientific research into its products. In 2001, GU Electrolyte Brew (formerly Gu2o) was launched as the perfect hydration companion to GU Energy Gel. 2008 saw the introduction of Roctane Ultra Endurance Energy Gel, followed by Chomps Energy Chews and GU Recovery Brew in 2009. Every product is formulated to further GU’s mission: to help athletes go faster and longer than ever before”

To learn more about GU and their products, please visit them online at  http://www.guenergy.com.

GU, welcome to the Wicked Philanthropy team!

(Update 9/25/09 – Mike surpassed his modest fundraising goal by an impressive 43% and to date has raise $575 for the cause.)

I received a nice email from Mike Morris (prior rider) today.  Here’s his email, cause, and call to help – please help if you can:

Friends,

On Thursday I’m going to be wearing a bald-cap all day long in support of cancer fighting charities.  It’s probably going to be harder for me than riding 100 miles on my bike since I hate wearing hats, even worse latex skull-caps.  I’m raising money and need your help.  My goal is to raise a modest $400 by Wednesday.  I’m at zero as I write this email.

Coincidentally, Shonda and I just found out yesterday that her grandfather lost his fight with lung cancer.  Her grandfather was her father figure growing up.  Cancer fighting causes take on a whole new light when it hits close to home.

I’m personally and through my businesses supporting this cause and you can watch me talk about Shonda’s personal fight with Cancer in this video [embedded below]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF7yQiaeudI

You can donate here, it takes seconds.

http://beboldbebald.kintera.org/faf/search/searchParticipants.asp?ievent=308395&lis=1&kntae308395=6846EFB5667A4F1593B4B4D08B9234BC

Or: http://beboldbebald.org/

Thank You!

Mike Morris, NASM-CPT, CES
Co-Owner
Corrective Exercise and Movement Specialist
Fitness Together, Arlington & Back Bay
—————————————————————————–
Back Bay, Boston  -  36 Newbury St, 3rd Floor
617.247.3900
617.247.3911 (fax)
www.FTBackBay.com

Arlington – 37 Broadway
781.316.8500
781.316.8501 (fax)
www.FTArlington.com

I was unaware this film was in the making but just saw a post from Patagonia about it.  Perfect timing and a beautiful trailer.

Patagonia wrote (via @CleanestLine), “The End of the Line is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish. It’s for responsibly fished oceans. http://endoftheline.com”

Enjoy:

It should go without saying that we’re looking for volunteers.  We’re looking for help with everything from finalizing the “C2C” route, to networking for sponsorship, to proposals on what we should apply our funds to.

Please feel free to contact us by Twitter, email, or phone:

• Twitter: @WickedPhil or @MattSolar
• Email: Use the contact form above.
• Phone: Use the Google Voice button at right.

I’m still researching ideas on where we can best utilize our fundraising ideas.  Fortunately, I’m getting great support.  I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss one of the causes I have been considering.  It’s certainly not finite but I’d like our fans to know a bit more about why I may seem stubbornly passionate about coastal Maine conservation and protection (aside from being an outdoorsman).  Here’s a quick history on my experience witnessing the decimation of fishing in Maine.

Growing up spending summers in Midcoast Maine we used to be able to catch a lot of fish, namely Cod, Stripped Bass, Bluefish, and infinite amounts of Mackerel.  Over the course of one summer, however, the fishing fish population was all but completely destroyed.

My dad used to take my brother and me out fishing and a few times each summer we used to get schools of Blues coming into our harbor to feed on baitfish.  It was an amazing scene to witness; every 30 seconds or so the surface of the water the area of a two-car garage would appear to boil as baitfish leapt out of the water to escape their predators.  It was an absolute feeding frenzy.  The chaos would ensue for a minute before the Blues would regroup and plan their next attack.  This process would last for almost an hour and fishing during this time was always extremely exciting.  We could catch almost as many Bluefish as we could real in.  Nothing went to waste; what we didn’t eat we gave to a friend to use as bait in his lobster traps.

Example trawler.

Then in the late 90’s the Russian fishing trawlers came into US waters under a joint-project allowed by the New England Fishery Management Council (Source: CHOIR).  They anchored their gigantic processing ship off the coast of Pemaquid Point.  In the course of a couple months they managed to completely decimate the population of fish.  We caught fewer fish in the decade following their arrival than we did in one day  prior.   The only Strippers and Blues I have caught since all fell on one day when we caught four.  Coincidentally, it was the morning of my wedding in 2005.  I have not caught any others since.  You hear stories about environmental disasters, over harvesting, and poor land management but to be able to witness something so first hand and clearly is something amazing.  Like turning off a light switch, the trawlers turned off fishing.

I’m researching the problem and looking to see if anyone is addressing it.  Is it simply a political issue or are their environmental issues at play here, too.  Again, it’s just an idea but can Wicked Philanthropy help the fish population recover?