Cranksgiving 2012
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November 17, 2012 by Bickel's |
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It was a beautiful day for a bike ride! Donned in leg & arm warmers, bright jackets and jerseys accompanied with empty backpacks, bike bags, and pockets, 31 cyclists met at Mazzio’s Italian Eatery on Saturday, November 17, 2012 to ride around Burlington / West Burlington collecting ~$15 worth of food and hygiene items for the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry. As Pam Kershner put it, both in terms of weather and turnout, “So far, I think this was the best Cranksgiving of them all!” Bruce Morrison was also quite impressed with the sunny, blue skies and agreeable temps in the upper 50s, so much so he opted to ride with sandals, exposing those ten mighty toes God gave him. When questioned if he purposely painted his toes blue that morning…well, that was answered with Bruce’s great smile. But, I will say Bruce was very efficient & quick in his store visits. I inquired what his strategy was and he replied, “I gotta keep moving to stay warm!” I am pleased to report Bruce still has all of his ten toes. Riders came with a shared goal but made their own fun of it. For Rodney Norris, it was a chance to visit & take in a bike ride with good friends, making it worth the 2-hour drive from his new home. For Lisa & Amanda Mathiasmeir, it was a fun mother / daughter bonding experience. At lunch, Sandie Bickel asked if they were sisters. Lisa LOVED that! Amanda put on a brave smile. For Hunter Hayes, he came looking for something new to do in town and joined the bike club later that day. For Pam Kershner, she enjoyed making a game of “helping” the struggling male shoppers find the listed items. After all, shopping is what the ladies do best, right?! Between Doris Lionberger, Sandie Bickel, and myself, we organized the list the food pantry provided, determined a mix of businesses to visit (making sure they had stock of certain items & knew of our efforts), and in turn had (6) big boxes waiting back at Mazzio’s to be filled along with prizes to be awarded. Doris was also very creative and forward thinking as the suggested list of items / businesses were printed on small envelopes for people to take with them and stuff their receipts into as they rode about. Nicely done! What also ended up being a pretty cool coincidence was that the annual Stuff the Truck food drive (sponsored by Pritchard Broadcasting and UPS) was simultaneously taking place the same day. Having typically held their efforts in December, they choose to move their event up a few weeks and in turn it coincided with ours! And it was a proud day to be a member of Bike Burlington as many cyclists were electing to not only get items for the club’s Cranksgiving efforts but also choose to take out extra goods to the UPS trucks as well. As people thoroughly enjoyed a pizza buffet on behalf of the club, Sandie & I tallied the receipts & were proud to announce that $812.23 in both product & cash donations were accounted for the 2012 Cranksgiving ride! According to Jim Wade, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Food pantry, Bike Burlington’s efforts combined with Stuff the Truck brought in more than 4000 lbs of canned food and nearly $1000 in cash making donations about 10% more than in past years!! Being that this is the food panty’s biggest food drive of the year, the results were very welcomed. According to Wade, the food pantry services between 120-140 families per week with 5-10 more people coming in daily, many because of the current economic conditions. With good deeds at heart, it was an added treat that Bike Burlington received additional recognition not only once but twice by The Hawk Eye that week, both front page features in two different sections. And in speaking of recognitions, below were a few acknowledged during lunch:
Again, THANK YOU to all for your participation & generosity! We have a pretty awesome bike club to be proud of. |