Thousands of miles. Hundreds of donations. One goal.

The .com to .org conversion is complete (content-wise, anyway).  I’m going to have WickedPhilanthropy.com redirect to this blog so now it’s time to coerce some web-friends to help spruce it up a bit.  I’m open to ideas – what would be helpful, valuable, or interesting to see here?

I’m planning on posting;

• Fundraising goals & accomplishments
• Progress on the routes/rides
• Logistics milestones
• Occasional training summaries
• Sponsor updates

I’m especially looking forward to breaking the $20k mark.  Feedback is always welcome to please don’t hesitate to email.

Thanks,
Matt

The Pan-Mass Challenge organizers just sent riders a quick list of some statistics from this years rides.  Here’s the breakdown:

• Registered:             5,216
• Off the line:           4,949
• % – Male / Female:      65/35
• % – Alumni / 1st Year:  75/25
• Avg. Years in PMC:      4.6
• Average Age of Riders:  43
• 2-day:                  3,557
• 1-day:                  943
• 1-day Sunday:           449
• Teens: 13-19            176
• Over 70:                39
• Volunteer/Ride          36
• Sturbridge Sat:         2,521
• Wellesley Sat:          1,978
• States:                 36
• Countries:              10
• Volunteers:             3,000
• Kids Rides:             36
• # of Kids:              7,000

Quite impressive numbers.  It’s amazing that the organizers can consistenly, and with apparent flawlessness, organize an event with these numbers.  The numbers are capped but it certainly seems that the total donations are down slightly over last year, most likely as a result of the economy.

Matt

One thing we’re asking every single one of our friends to do is to become a fan of Wicked Philanthropy on Facebook.  Here are a few reasons why we don’t want any talking back when you get our invitations;

• It’s completely free.
• It’s easy – just click the “Become a Fan” link.
• It helps us out.
• We post very infrequently but if you still think it’s too much you can hide us from your update feed.

Most people under estimate how much it helps.  Aside from hoping that you’ll want to hear more about our efforts and milestones it does help us develop credibility with potential sponsors.  We may be small, but we’re loud.

Social media is a buzz word these days but with good reason.  Having a fan base shows sponsors not only that we’re dedicated but that we have the potential to engage potential customers in conversation and spread the word of their generosity in hopes that we will further support them.

Our goal is to exceed 1,000 fans.

Please help us out by taking a few moments to become a “fan” of us and to invite your friends as well.  To invite your friends, please view the three step process below.

Step 1: When in the WP Fan page, click on "Suggest to Friends" link in the upper left corner under our logo.

Step 2: Select the friends you wish to invite by clicking on their thumbnails.

Step 3: Close the window verifying success.

Yes, it’s that simple.

What the process does is send the following email to the friends you’ve selected;

“Matt became a fan of Wicked Philanthropy on Facebook and suggested you become a fan too.

To see more details and confirm this invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages/Boston-MA/Wicked-Philanthropy/7073776970

Thanks,
The Facebook Team”

That’s it – perhaps the easiest way to support a non-profit philanthropy group.

I’m in the middle of a much needed overhaul of the website.

It’s been a few years and my attention to it has been wanning.  This year, however, is a turning point.  I’ve decided that I just need to suck it up and do it – turn Wicked Philanthropy into a proper non-profit.  The book keeping will become more difficult, the expectations will become more difficult, and I’ll need to set my goals higher. These days it seems that too many people are uncommitted, lazy ,or simply don’t care and I don’t want to be one of them.

Using Yvon Chouinard’s book for inspiration, and, hopefully, without sounding too self-righteous, I’m going to do my best to put my money where my mouth is and try to do something about it.  Filing for 501(c) non-profit status for Wicked Philanthropy and a site overhaul are a start.  Next steps are recruiting people to help; riders, corporate sponsors, individual donors, web developers… everyone can help in some form, please contact me if you are interested in helping.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.“  – Mahatma Ghandi

July 8, 2006- The Prouty

The Prouty is a one-day, 100-mile ride starting and ending in Hanover, NH.

The 2006 Prouty was a great event but not without incident.

We were starting off on an uphill note. Jeff Adams had recently received a knee injury that prevented him from training much at all prior to this ride. In fact, the 100 mile century ride would double his riding for the summer. Taylor Moran-Gates , having been in med-school in NYC had been limited in time and was only able to run in preparation. He ran a lot, though. Matt Solar had been riding a bit, but wasn’t prepared to tow Jeff 100 miles. It didn’t take long to figure out that this might be a more painful century that last year (refusing to admit we’re getting older).

However, we did have the benefit of staying in NH the night prior and absolutely beautiful weather – both things we failed to get in 2005. These made the early ride start much more tolerable.  The ride started well, and we immediately picked up another solo rider. After 20 miles we picked up a second rider, a member of the RPI cycling team. With a posse of 5, we rode.

Getting passed on the downhill by a expletive-cheering old man on a recumbent, trying to keep up with a sponsored amateur rider, sliding the rear wheel into traffic… lots of stories.

Checkpoints are roughly every 20-25 miles and 100 miles of NH hills is a lot when you haven’t trained, so by mile 80 (the last checkpoint) Jeff was threatening to throw in the towel. We knew he was hurting and we’d lie about the mileage on every hill. Jeff was done, but we guilt tripped him into finishing with us right as we rolled by the last check point. We continued to take turns letting him draft. Taylor seemed to get another wind at this point and took to the hills like his Polka Dotted jersey was at risk.

The last 5 miles are slow – small windy roads running alongside the river. The finish starts to feel really close, and you start to relax. Within 1 mile of the finish – literally – Matt got a flat. His first of the day. Thankfully, our group of 5 waited and we finished together.

Any day you can ride 100 miles with friends in beautiful weather is a good day in my book – this was one of them.