Shameless plug- Vote for a bike-related charity for CNN's hero of the year!
 

Not sure if any of you are familiar with the "CNN Heroes" contest, but basically they've whittled down a lot of nominations for people who are doing great outreach/charity work for their communities to 10 finalists. They're running a voting process for the finalists to determine which one will win a $100,000 gift for their charity.

CNN Heroes - CNN.com

One of the finalists is a friend, Craig Dodson. He runs a charity in Richmond, Virginia called Richmond Cycling Corps. I've posted about it on BF before, basically they run the first and only inner-city youth mountain bike team in the country and help some really good kids who grew up in really awful circumstances break out of the poverty trap. He runs the program with a couple other great guys in our bike community but they're constantly on a shoestring budget so this contest could really change things for them and allow them to expand their outreach program significantly. Here's their info page if you're curious-

About ? Richmond Cycling Corps

Anyway, it'd be huge for their organization to win so if anyone here is inclined, please click on that CNN link and vote for them. It literally takes 10 seconds and you can vote up to 10 times a day. I believe the final day to vote is Friday. Thanks in advance!!

Shill.

Sock puppet.

For Over 100 years England has the Cyclists Touring Club , now .. The cyclists' champion | Cycling UK

Ok... ???

By becoming cyclists? Cycling will only keep them in poverty.


I'll vote for him.

:thumb: I won't give you a hard time about pseudo-training ever again.

It's more of the "teach them discipline and team dynamics/personal accountability" than trying to make them into pros. They're actually pretty competitive in their age group races with a lot of podiums over the years. The main thing is that the kids are staying out of trouble and staying healthy.

I voted for him, why not? It's a good thing.

Warning!!! It took me at least 60 seconds to cast the maximum 10 votes for my email address. Get your facts straight! ;)

Thanks guys! :thumb:

We're going to have a viewing party of the show on Sunday to see if he won, fingers crossed. I sent something to GCN about it as well to see if they'd pick it up. Couldn't hurt to try!

The guy in question has been in the news here locally about this, but I'm pretty sure he'd be doing this even without the recognition. He's working with underprivileged kids and bikes while most of us on this forum only work with bikes. Some of us could learn something.

:thumb:

If you follow RCC on facebook, Craig posts very long and detailed essays documenting the day to day work he does with the kids. It's clearly a very personal thing for him and he's devoted himself to it in a way few people can.

FWIW, I race for his non- profit bike shop that uses its proceeds to help fund RCC. If you're ever looking for a fitting or a new bike keep them in mind :)

I voted and then made sure ccn.com was blacklisted on my Ironport antispam appliance.

Voted x10.

I love what he is doing!
Im going to check them out on FB.

Schwinn Prelude?


Where are the pics?

They are in C&V Schwinn & pink bike threads - like http://www.bikeforums.net/19209665-post66.html

These are from when i first got it, before cleaning & changes - Schwinn Prelude by Hardrock0223 | Photobucket
Heres one from last week though -

That's awesome. I saved an old Prelude for sentimental reasons and ended up riding it a couple thousand miles this year.

Thanks! Yeah, they're great riders, not to mention comfortable!

Thanks for voting! Voting is closed so it's out of our hands now. We'll be getting together with Craig to watch the CNN special on Sunday night. Fingers crossed! Just to be nominated is an honor and brings a lot of recognition to his work, but the prize money donation would be huge.

I watched some of the videos on his page this morning. Absolutely loved it all, and just how the kids all spoke of him and how its helped them. Really amazing. I really hope they get it!

Well, Craig didn't win but the exposure their group got from this event will hopefully help in the long run. Subaru is also apparently matching all donations made to RCC from now until the end of the year dollar for dollar in case anyone is in a giving mood :)

Our mayor-elect came to the watch party last night and had beers with us, good sign for our city that a mayor is involved in the bike community and particularly in this type of organization. Thanks to everyone that read my post and voted!

What kind of contest is it when you can vote 10x? CNN treating this like our national elections?

Too bad he didnt win, but thats great about what Subaru is doing and that the mayor is involved!