Friday, April 4, 2008

Brain wake up time!

Why did no-one ever tell me how much fun (and time consuming) blogging is?? I have spent most of today trying to wake up my brain enough to understand all about elements and HTML - although not too successfully.

What I did discover however is that I love finding and reading other peoples blogs!

Friend of mine said yesterday to my husband that he would now become a "blog widower". Of course we both laughed but unfortunately, if I am not careful, his prediction will come true!

Now back to why we set up the blog in the first place (no it is not just for my enjoyment) .... our 2009 Big Wish Bike Ride, proudly supporting Make-A-Wish Australia.

We really are just in the set up stage, and trying to gain sponsorship and support is truly challenging in todays society. So many small businesses are family owned and operated, and let me tell you, they are doing it tough at the moment!

Anyway, we are proud to officially welcome Get Marketing and JABA Multimedia Design as first up sponsors. These guys are fantastic in their support and are the creative people behind the majority of our designs. Thank you very much guys!

I would especially like to thank "Mrs JABA" for showing me the delights of blogging ... and for patiently explaining to me how it all works in spite of being extremely tired.

A bit of background info about the ride .... we had our first in 2006 when Ashley and Steve rode from Brisbane to Adelaide. We raised over $50,000 cash for Make-A-Wish Australia (MAW)back then and hope to well and truly exceed that figure this time around. Can you imagine just how many wishes that helped be granted?

This photo is from one our trial rides for the 2006 Big Wish Bike Ride. Cyclists for that day were Matthew Primus, Ray Ebel, Ashley and Steve, and guess who sponsored our vehicles??

We also met some interesting people before and during that ride ... all with their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to helping children with a life threatening illness. I'll expand more about the people we met in a later blog - just one of whom is the World Champion Sheep Shearer - a great supporter of MAW. His training regime is amazing - after a long and hard days work shearing 100's of sheep, when everyone else knocks off for a bit of R&R, he starts a 2 hour training session working on weights and fitness equipment! Guess that's the right attitude to succeed.
Anyway, before I waffle on too long, I would like to introduce our cyclists. Ashley is married with children, has a full time job and competes in Triathlons in his spare time. He always wanted to do something to help people less "blessed" than himself, so came up with the idea of cycling over a longer than normal distance - I mean, who in their right mind would willingly ride a bicycle over 3000 kms in 21 days??. Crazy man but with a really good heart. His wife is extremely patient and has my undying respect!
Richard is not married but does have a special partner, works full time and competes in races in his spare time as well. He is a friend of a friend who heard about what we are doing and asked to join in! Another crazy man with his heart in the right place!

This time as I have said before ... they are riding from Perth to Sydney over a 23 day period with NO days off at all.

We plan to have the majority of our fundraising complete before we leave Adelaide in October 2009, but will accept donations at any stage!

Perhaps you may like to sponsor the guys for a specific dollar amount, or you may like to contribute goods or services, or you could even pledge an amount per kilometre they travel!

Anything you can do to help us raise lots of money for Wish Granting will most definitely be appreciated. If you would like to donate directly to MAW National Office please quote our official event number which is 10003 - that way your generous donation will be credited against our event. It all ends up in the right place anyway but it is nice to be able to say we raised a certain amount.

Well - our electricity went off - right in the middle of my post - and I was terrified that I had lost it all. But no - miraculously it was still all here!

So, on that note and as it is getting later (although not as late as last night) I will say goodnight and chat with you all tomorrow!

Cheers


2 comments:

Arizaphale said...

I see you got the site counter working. A couple of other ideas: Sponsor logos on the side bar, larger font on the post page...the white on orange is doing my head in being so small (that may be just me but its worth asking others)....I'll keep reading :-)

Andi said...

I am visiting from Mrs. JABA's site- the flaming sword lady...just checking things out. You have been so busy! I am amazed at all of your sidebar links and updated posts. I began blogging in January of this year, and you are so right, it is quite addictive! The photos you have included here are quite nice- very bright and interesting. I think the suggestions of a donate here button is a great idea, although I haven't the faintest idea how that would work. I am still relatively new myself, and other than putting photos, a video, and other page elements, I am kind of clueless. Good luck to you...hope you raise tons of money!