Thus, our total funds raised will be just over $16,000 for the season. I want to thank everyone who made pledges through the team. Looking over the pledge dedications on the web site, it's clear cancer has affected many in or near the cycling community.
Also as of September 1, HomeVisit's sponsorship of the team will end. Haymarket Bicycles will continue the team as before and HomeVisit will move on to other endeavors with a new charity / sponsorship effort for next year. Whether that will be cycling related is yet to be determined.
When I came up with this idea of a season long fund raising effort, I knew that there would some risk in keeping the charity focus at the forefront along with racing and work and life in general. That's the reason why so much effort went into the web site, so that it could be primarily web driven. I also knew going in that this is a reason why many athletic fund raising efforts are driven by a single day event.
I still think there are ways for amateur sports teams to draw significant focus and funds to various charities, tied to the efforts of the athletes and I'm not ready to give up on that idea yet. To gain a sustainable foothold, I think a charity effort like this needs a larger team that involves women and juniors and masters if it were to be as successful as I envisioned it to be. That's nothing against our team - I always said that we couldn't let the fund raising outweigh the riding. A balance is needed to work well. Anyway, my Wife and I, through HomeVisit, are very pleased to have undertaken this effort with the help of our team this year.
