19 October 2009

Danmans Great Ride for Samoa

| Danman
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Dear fellow RiotACTers

On Wednesday 30 September, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck in the pacific, offshore, between the islands of Samoa and American Samoa.

The earthquake triggered a tsunami of up to 1.7 metres in height, which caused severe damage in island areas that are only a few feet above sea level.

Bearing the brunt of the tsunami was a narrow coastal strip of 40km, with 40 villages on the south eastern end of Upolu.

The most easterly 15km part of this strip has been totally destroyed.

What has this to do with RiotACT, Canberra and you, I hear you ask, well thats where I fit in.

I have friends who are Samoan, who live in both Samoa and here in Australia, and having returned from Samoa 12 weeks ago, this tragedy hit me hard.

From personal experience, the Samoan nation and its people are one of the kindest, most gentle and friendly countries I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

When I heard of this tragedy, I felt helpless, I wanted to travel there and help my friends uncle (who owns a construction company) first hand to rebuild the smaller communities that were devastated.

Unfortunately, budgetary constraints and a pregnant wife dictated that this was not going to be the case.

So instead, I have decided to do something on my own merit.

Through the website Everyday Hero I have organised a bike ride with all sponsorship proceeds to go to Red Cross.

The Red Cross have a Pacific Tsunami Appeal and are actively helping the nation of Samoa to get back up off its knees and walk tall again.

I intend to make this ride on the morning of the 31st October 2009.

My plan is to start near the Molonglo river entry to Lake Burley Griffin and circumnavigate it twice.

By my rough calculations this is approximately 52km, and I think, an achievable distance for most levels of cyclist.
For further details on the ride, and if you wish to donate or even participate, please go to my profile on Everyday Hero

If you do wish to participate, I aim to complete the ride in a reasonable amount of time, but am not aiming for a training run.
the premium will be getting out in the sun and enjoying beauty not often found in rushing about.

More information regarding donating and participating can be found here

If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading, and i implore you to help where (and if) you can.

No donation will be considered too small and receipts are issued for all transactions.

Warm regards

Danman

Naturally, I would like to keep this thread about the bike ride, fund raising efforts and attendees, there are plenty of existing cyclist v/ motorist threads already , and if anyone is concerned, 99% of this ride will be on “off road” shared cycleways. Also thank you to the RiotACT editorial team for allowing this story to pass.

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Cheers all – It would have been a fizzer if there was no support, so the real hero of the day was the riders and sponsors – not just me.

Great bike Snarky…

yeah I rode a test lap last weekend,and as karma would have it, it was faultless… I hit this up with a new rear tire and tube (Had a blowout during the week) and couldn’t escape the bad Karma..

A rundown included 2 co2 canisters, 3 tubes (2 punctures, one broken valve stem on inflation) my bike computer gave up the ghost and I forgot to unpause my runkeeper after the first incident so google maps only has me doing 21km, not 60… Dammit.

Still max kudos to my brother for sacrificing his 60km, some 25km in to give me his klunker Giant MTB – made the ride harder, but hey – no one said it would be easy…

Donations are open until a year after the event so if you feel more inclined to sponsor after the fact be my guest…

I was also actually thinking of a regular one lap and maybe a beer afterward if anyone ever wanted to join…. Though an impending baby will have that on hold for a time to come in the new year.

Thanks again to RiotACT and the readership in supporting this great cause.. At this time, donations stand at $2535 and that is sure to increase with pledges only being honoured after the fact for a few sponsors.

Well Danman, that was a bloody good ride!

Big thumbs up for completing it despite the best efforts of the p*nct*re fairies, and even bigger thumbs up for being willing to stand up and organize an astonishing fundraising effort for a great cause. And a big “thank you” to your Mum for the unexpected and very welcome sausage sizzle afterwards.

Well done!

🙂

Well I am 1hr and 8 minutes away from starting my ride and my team total sits at 2400 – Not including cash pledges that I will have to process after the event.

Thank you RiotACT and RiotACT readership for your support – I have been quite overwhelmed

Snarky – 0730 for an 0800 departure.
If you wish to see who Danman actuall is, Ill be the guy wearing the “Danmans Ride For Samoa” shirt.

What time on Saturday morning are you kicking off at the start point Danman?

Just an update that $1700 has been raised so far. If you want to donate, please follow the link in the story.

I rode one lap of the course yesterday and it is 30km not 26 as I had mapped on gmaps pedometer – That makes the total ride 60km, not 52 as advertised – thats great value for money for sponsors. Bring it on.

Yep…C’mon guys, 52km on a bike, thats no cake walk, and surely is worthy of more sponsrship from RA readership.

To those who have aready donated, Thank you so so so so much – to those who have not…Hit up the link in the story 🙂

He’s up to 1400, guys!!

🙂

Kick it up to 2 grand and ill be crackin a beer after that ride.

Muttsybignuts8:39 pm 21 Oct 09

Good on you Dan. When I chipped in there was only $50 in the kitty. $700 is a good achievement. A thousand will be even better.

So glad to see everyone getting behind Dan for this excellent cause! Go, Canberra!!

$700 pledged so far – and now is a team event – you can join my team using the link above and the password to join is Lordfaser.

Would be awesome to see Rat Patrol out in strength, if only for a portion of the ride 😉
hint hint

Hopefully you’ll get a day like today. It was one of those days when you get to work and just want to keep on going. It’s easy to do 100km when the weather’s nice – with a coffee break of course.

Cheers Peterh – The ride wont be easy (for me) – a cake walk for a lot of people, but not easy for me.

My scope is that it will be a hell of a lot easier than replacing lives and possessions, and to that end, happy for a bit of pain if it makes some coin for others in need.

Dan, good on you for doing this. Good luck with the ride, and i will visit your profile online.

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