Riding for Roses

Today was stage 1 at the Tour Watch 2005 event at Central Market North in Austin. Being the first day of the event, we didn’t really know how it was going to go until it happened. It was a great day of conversation with visitors to the Tour Watch and other event participants. We raised a little money and hope we will keep building momentum.

I arrived with my table and collateral, including table, box of LAF promotional material, and the all new Riding for Roses Issue 2 for use in fundraising. We set tables up near the exit from the cafe onto the patio. Foot traffic was pretty good with a lot of people wandering by the tables, but we aren’t getting any non-cafe traffic. I don’t know if there is any way to improve that situation, but we will keep watching it as the Tour continues.

I love getting the opportunity to talk to people about cancer experiences, both Spencer’s and their own. I spoke with a man who recently had melanoma and is dealing with the issue of being almost constantly concerned with his sun exposure. I met a wonderful man who is a twelve year adult leukemia survivor and talk about the differences in treatment for adults and children. A woman who is a brain cancer survivor shared nutritional tips with me and suggested a doctor to consult for diet recommendations to minimize the impact of chemotherapy. I spoke with John of Grande Communications (which generously has donated a fiber optic Internet hookup to the Tour Watch), whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I got the opportunity to tell Spencer’s story over and over to individuals and to media.

I am taking a break now and then returning to the event around 6 PM. We are working on a plan called “Seven minutes with Rob” or possibly “Seven for Sponsors” where I will do a seven minute conversation with a series of seven sponsors and event participants. We’ll discuss their reasons for participating in the Tour Watch, what they are doing, their company, bicycling, and cancer. I hope that we’ll be able to get raw material for three of these tonight and see what we can do in the editing process. This is an experiment in media for me, so we’ll see if it works.

I’ve received checks for $120 for the Peloton Project, but so far nobody has taken the opportunity to donate to support cancer survivors online. I did have a lot of excellent conversations and distributed forms to a number of excellent donations prospects, so I continue to be hopeful that momentum will increase and we’ll start generating some increased donations.

Oh, yeah: Lance rocked today. I’m not going to try to be a Tour de France correspondent here. I was busier with fundraising than Tour viewing. Today was one of those days that shows the brilliant combination of race tactics and strong cycling that has made Lance a six time Tour de France winner. He took significant time from all of his major rivals, but does not have the Discovery Team in the possibly awkward position of defending the yellow jersey. Besides, Zabriskie earned it.