What time is it? It’s time for World Bicycle Relief! If you’re not familiar with my favorite non-profit charity organization, click worldbicyclerelief.org to learn more. In a nutshell, they provide rugged bicycles to those in need, making a huge impact on recipients’ ability to travel to school, work, obtain food and water, and generally have a better life. Providing bicycles may seem like a simple mission, but it is simply powerful in providing a leg up for many around the world. For the past five years, World Bicycle Relief has aided me in running a Charity Challenge to raise money and subsequently buy bikes. For information on last year’s fundraiser, you can click on the article links at the bottom of this page.
Being a professional athlete certainly requires a lot of ‘me’ time, and this event is one of my favorite ways to turn the tables and bring people together to give back to a very worthwhile cause. How does the Challenge work? This year, the Challenge starts now, in conjunction with Ironman Arizona in Tempe, AZ, the race where this fundraiser began back in 2009. It's great to be back in the desert, and it's great to be doing this for another year. The Challenge ends at the end of the year - Dec. 31, 2014. Throughout the months of November and December, 100% of all donations to WBR will be matched by anonymous donors, meaning whatever we raise this year will be doubled. Last year, we raised well over $100,000 for WBR, our first year breaking through the six-figure mark. Our total for the past five years is over $300,000, or over 2,200 bicycles! That’s a LOT of bikes, and deserves one heck of a pat on the back for everyone that contributed. Our lofty goal for this year is to raise another $100,000 (746 bicycles)!
As you will see in coming articles, many of my sponsors and other supporters have been VERY generous in donating several awards for the challenge. In the past, we listed a bunch of items in a few articles. This year, I pushed for bigger and even more awesome stuff, and each item will get its own page talking about what we've got on offer, but also why each company is contributing to the effort. We're planning to have a bunch of videos (this is the 21st century!), though none will be quite as remarkable as the one I've posted here to inspire you to kick this off. That one is really special. The basic way the awards work remains the same, though. The challenge awards will be done electronically, on a roll-down system. The first winner will get first pick of awards, second place gets second choice, etc. We will roll out the awards in several waves over the coming weeks – stay tuned!
Most of the basics remain the same as in previous years. You can donate ANY amount, but ONLY donations of $134 or more (the cost of one bicycle) will make you eligible to earn some of the great fundraising awards. For every multiple of $134 that you donate, you get another chance at an award. $268 earns you two chances, $402 earns you three, $536 earns you four, etc. Donations made on your behalf will also be tallied towards your total (and then divided by $134). If you get 10 people to donate $13.40 in honor/recognition of you, then that earns you another chance as well. Anyone donating for you must make a notation in the "Donor Info" section with your name - i.e. Name - "John Doe (for Jordan Rapp)".
This year, however, we are making a small tweak to honor those who have stepped up in a big way for us. This year, donations of 5 bikes ($670) will get an extra chance (so five bikes gets you six chances in honor of the 6th year of the fundraiser). Donations of 10 bikes will get an extra three chances (so 10 bikes gets you 13 chances). Donations that fall in between (like 6 bikes) will get rounded down (so 6 bikes gets 7, 12 bikes gets 15). But each increment of either five or ten will earn the extra chances (15 bikes would get 19 chances - 5+1 & 10+3) at getting something awesome.
To enter the challenge, you can donate online at the URL below. Like last year, the Ironman Foundation has been very generous in hosting and handling the donation site for us (Thanks, IMF!!!). Link: http://www.crowdrise.com/RappstarCharityChallenge You can also submit donations via traditional mail at this address: World Bicycle Relief Attn: Development 1333 N. Kingsbury Street 4th Floor Chicago, IL 60642 Award drawing tickets will be assigned automatically from the donations, so please make sure to give us an email or phone number (or both) where we can reach you. For my part, I will be donating 10% of my prize money from Ironman Arizona, rounded up to the nearest whole bicycle amount. For example, in 2009 I donated 10% from my win at Ironman Arizona, and the prize money amount was $8,500. Ten percent of that is $850. $850 divided by $134 is 6.3, so in that case, I rounded up and donated seven bicycles - $938. 100% of your contributions are tax deductible and will be directed back to World Bicycle Relief.
Also new for this year, if you give a donation of $134, you are also able to request a formal printed "thank you" gift/donation cards that can be sent to you or to someone else. The cards are beautifully printed and feature an inspiring story of an actual recipient of a bicycle. Especially since this is the holiday season, we wanted to add something special to honor the momentous donations you all give. If you want a card, you can either contact WBR on their website - worldbicyclerelief.org/contact, or just make a note via Crowdrise ("I want a card") and we will contact you to make it happen.
Before you click through (or if you're back after clicking through) to the donation site, you may notice that the tally is really high for having just started. To kick this off, the WBR gang helped me organize an awesome dinner at The Pedaler's Fork, a local (to me), cycling-themed farm-to-table restaurant in Calabasas, CA benefitting WBR and kicking off this fundraiser in style. Thank you to everyone who supported that effort and gave us a great boost to kick this year off. It was a special way to start the sixth year of this fundraiser, and a special way to honor WBR's crossing of the 200,000 bicycle mark!
Part of the reason for the changes this year is that, after five years, it was my goal to inject some new life into this. The work we're doing has really just begun. I can truly say that this is the most important thing that I do as an athlete. And just as I've had to reinvent myself on the race course several times, I felt like it was time to reinvent this challenge, while - just as in training and racing - keeping the stuff that seems to work. So that's the goal here. I hope it inspires you all to give again, give for the first time, or simply spread the word. Thanks for your support and commitment to WBR! The only thing more powerful than the power of bicycles is the power of people like you! Jordan "Rappstar" Rapp.
