July 21, 2008 Michael AugustineLisez en Francais
Me again,
Well, I am quite excited. This weekend marks the first of five RONA MS Bike Tours in Ontario, for 2008. This first one, happening between Grand Bend and London, Ontario, is by far my favourite... because this is where it started for me.
I met Bill Bates (no relation to Bill Gates, as he reminds people), purely by chance several years ago, at the very first Bike Tour Pub Night - ever. I had asked when I heard about it happening, if I might volunteer, as I was always looking for new opportunities to learn things and meet interesting people. Plus, there would be free appetizers, which is always a good motivational incentive.
It was there that I first met Bill. At the time, he had been a tour leader and eager fundraiser for a number of years. I was amazed to learn that, just in the previous year alone, he and his wife Andrea had together raised well over $6,000, primarily through charity barbecues manned solely by just the two of them. I clearly remember thinking to myself “Oh, I have GOT to see THAT,” and thus offered to volunteer at my very first Bates Charity BBQ, held at a local WAL-MART store here in Mississauga.
While my help was certainly valued, it was Bill and Andrea who were the superstars. They each stood there for a solid 6 to 7 hours, holding huge plastic jugs and asking every single passerby for a pocket change donation. Meanwhile, I manned the cash table, while their nephew Dave bravely withstood the flames of an industrial grill, and flipped the burgers and dogs. By the time we were finished - no word of lie - we had collected over $2,000 in donations alone, primarily via twoonies and loonies, with another several hundred earned through food sales. As the store had offered to double our jug donations, we had succeeded, just the four of us, in raising nearly $5,000 that day.
As I had been bitten by the BBQ bug, I continued volunteering with Bill and Andrea and helped with another 7 events that summer. By the time we had finished, their totals raised for that year were well over $16,000, with more still coming in. I had been so excited by my experiences that I asked the staff at the head office if I might volunteer in some way at the event itself. They gladly agreed. Thus, on the last Friday of that July, Bill, Andrea, and myself all piled into their car, for the trip down to Grand Bend.
However, I was not a happy camper. Although the drive itself had been very pleasant, the weather had become increasingly more dark and stormy, as we went southward. My excitement had thus been dampened (pardon the pun) by a miserable rainstorm that showed no signs of letting up. The next day, when over 1,200 bikers lined up, all of whom were already fairly soaked by a liberal outpouring of rain, to begin a grueling trek of nearly 170 KM, we were all pretty miserable.
I had been given a ride to the finish line, set up at the University of Western Ontario in London, and was asked if I might brave the weather to cheer on these brave bicycle warriors when they completed the first leg of the tour. I lasted only about twenty minutes before I went inside, already thoroughly soaked through. The first couple cyclists had already come in, and they were - how shall I put this - pretty ticked off. Not only had the wind and driving rain made the voyage grueling, but not one single person had been at the finish line to greet them. Perhaps it really WAS an epiphany, or perhaps I’m simply suffering 20/20 hindsight, but I do remember feeling a very strong sense of resolve that these men and women needed to know EXACTLY how much I appreciated them.
And so, braving the driving rain, I went out, a solitary figure in the pouring ether, and I plopped myself square in the middle of the finish line, sitting in my now waterlogged wheelchair, and waited for them to arrive. As the first biker made his way to the top of the hill, I saw his face - one of arduous effort - light up like a million candles when he saw me there, screaming like an idiot at the top of my lungs, cheering him on all by myself with everything I had. As he went by me I gave him a soggy slap with a high-5, and I heard him say the most sincere “thank you so much” I’ve ever heard. Believe me, it was reciprocated!
I remained out there for another 5 hours, getting wetter by the second, giving high-5’s to every single biker, and watching each one change expressions from misery to excitement as they passed. The next day, the sun gloriously shone through a cloudless sky, and the 1,200 now equally happy participants completed the tour, but they still found me there, at the finish line, baking like a clam with a smile on my face, my hand raised to high-5 them, and welcome them back.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I have since been to nearly every one of dozens of barbecues with Bill and Andrea, and every year, they’ve not only exceeded the previous year with their fundraising, they’ve more than doubled it. This year, together, they have raised over $42,000, with more still to come, making them the most successful fundraising couple in Canada - period. As for me, I now sit at the finish line of four tours, every single year. I am rather proud to say that I have become a ‘mascot” of sorts for the tours, and I am extremely proud that some people have confided in me that the primary reason they keep coming, year after year, is just to get that high-5 at the end of the race.
A rather rewarding bonus to this whole scenario is that I have become very good friends with the senior fundraising manager of the southwest Ontario office, an amazingly funny and dedicated woman by the name of Lori Anne, as well as with her counterpart here in Toronto, the equally funny and dedicated Erin. Their passion for the Bike Tours has helped make them what they are today, true stories of overwhelming success and triumph. It was Lori Anne who put it succinctly best to me when she said: “You know what I like about you? You know that you're that guy whose job it is to inspire people - and you do it gladly, and you do it well! THAT impresses me!”
I have never been paid as equally great a compliment as that!
Here’s to 2008 being another record-breaking year. I’ll see you all at the finish line...
HIGH-5! Yours Irreverently
Mike, who is wearing gloves this year, to avoid the tender hands