Smart News 2008

Share Your Photos...Over $578,000 raised!!!

Over $578,000 was raised this year from The SMART Ride, taking the five year total to over $1.75 Million .

100% of that money will go to the benefiting agencies! A promise made back in 2003 and kept every year since. The ride produced by unpaid volunteers not only will keep to it's promise but has continued to allow the riders and crew to designate a portion of the money they raised to the agencies benefiting as they see fit.

Thank you to everyone who supported us, from the over 6000 donations, the sponsors who went over and beyond to show their support to the cities and counties that provided support services.

Special thanks goes to
Rosie's Bar and Grill
Lifeway Medical
Starbucks
Target
Abbott Virology
Maroone Ford

Congratulations to ALL for your tireless energy and efforts.

If you have photos you would like to share on line, please go to our gallery and add your photos, it's easy as pie. If you need help send an e-mail to glen@thesmartride.org

2008 Jersey Now Available

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Only $65!

This years SMART Jersey is sure to be a hit, the graphics and colors are outstanding,
(Sponsor logo placement may alter, otherwise Jersey will appear as in image)

The Jersey's are:

Short sleeve, with a 7" zipper
Three rear pockets.
Exclusive tapered collar - high enough on the sides to allow for logos but tapered at the chin so as not to pinch.
Separate side panels
Made from exclusive CS Tech fabric for superior comfort and wicking.
Jersey's come in Mens and Ladies Cuts from S-XXL
No annoying label tags at the neck
All Club Cut Shirts

We have limited quantities available in certain sizes, so order early to be sure your Jersey is available by ride date. All products will be available for pick up on Thursday November 13th, 2008 during registration at MorningStar Renewal Center in Miami. Check out the matching shorts (sample is available by visiting our store!!!

We also need your photo for our SMART Ride Gallery, if you haven't sent one yet, please send a photo to glen@thesmartride.org.

Send Us Your Photo Today!

We are starting up our annual on line album of all those participating in this years event. So please e-mail a photo of yourself to glen@thesmartride.org (please put your name and the name of anyone else in the photo in the e-mail).

The photo should be jpeg format (for the novice, just scan it and send it and we can work it out). As soon as we get enough photos we will post them on the Gallery.

Pride Fort Lauderdale April 12th

If your in the Fort Lauderdale area on the weekend of April 12th, come on out to War Memorial for the annual Stone Wall Pride Festival.

We would love to have as many people as possible wearing our SMART Ride Shirts and promoting this coming years event. You are our best ambassadors.

If you can volunteer your time, an hour or two on either day, it would be greatly appreciated. Contact Requel at rlopes@browardhouse.org.

Don't forget the AIDS Walk Fort lauderdale is coming up on April 27th, and there are many people walking from The SMART Ride as well as our benefiting agencies. If you would like to participate and are walking, we have t-shirts we can give you that say "Ask Me About The SMART Ride". It would serve two purposes, out for a great cause, and help us raise awareness about The SMART Ride.

Get into Pride West Palm Beach for FREE

For those of you in the Palm Beach Area, or those who are planning on being in the Palm Beach Area Pride,March 29th and 30th; you can get in for FREE.

Just wear a SMART Ride T-shirt (any year, make or model), or a SMART Ride Hat and your admittance to Pride is Gratis, Free, NADA! Thanks to Compass, Inc. that is not only a beneficiary of The SMART Ride but is also the producer of Pride West Palm Beach.

There will also be a SMART Ride booth at Pride, so if you are free to volunteer, hang in the booth, talk up the ride, etc. They would love to have you, at least stop by the booth and say HI! If you would like to volunteer contact, Mike Zewe at mike@compassglcc.com.

The best ambassadors for the ride are those who have participated as riders and crew! So come on out, have some fun and lets help the ride grow!

Riders, if you would like to ride in the parade on Sunday morning Morning March 30th, in West Palm Beach behind a banner, you would be welcomed and encouraged, again contact Mike Zewe at mike@compassglcc.com to find out what time and where.

General information:
Fifthteenth Annual
PrideFest of the Palm Beaches
March 29 & 30, 2008, 12-6pm
Bryant Park, Lake Worth, Fla.
or Visit The Pride Official Website by clicking here

Registration is Now OPEN

Registration for 2008 is officially open, we have incorporated many new upgrades and features to make your registration process more comprehensive starting with your housing requests.

We look forward to a successful 2008! If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 1-866-696-7701 or e-mail info@thesmartride.org

Next SMART Ride Committee Meeting January 12th

The meeting be from 11am-1:30pm. Let us know if you plan on attending by emailing DavidSpacht@THESMARTRIDE.ORG. We welcome all participants in the ride to attend, meet the various agencies and individuals who help make this annual event a huge success. Here is the rest of the information that you will need to get there

Directions:

Coming west on I-4, take the Hillsborough Avenue exit (US 92) and follow to 56th Street and turn right (north) to Corporate Square on left, just a bit past the McDonald’s, when you come in the drive, turn right at your first opportunity and follow around to the left and we’re the first office suite—Building 100, Suite 101.

From I-75—take I-4 West and follow the above…

From I-275—take I-4 East and follow to the 50th Street exit on the left, follow through one light to the second (50th Street) and turn left (north), follow this road for several miles, and it automatically becomes 56th Street, then pass Hillsborough Avenue and follow north as above to just north of the McDonalds, and turn left into Corporate Square.

Address is 7402 North 56th Street, Tampa, FL 33617 if you want to Map Quest it.

Fundraiser for SMART Ride in Tampa

Friday night, December 14, 7-10 PM, at Georgie’s Alibi, 31st Street North and 3rd Avenue North, St. Petersburg. Fundraiser for TBAN for the SMART Ride.

There will be a multi-prize raffle and a 50/50 drawing, with all proceeds going to TBAN’s efforts to raise money for the 2008 the Smart Ride sponsorship.

For more information on how to help, please contact Patrick Mercier, Program Director, Tampa Bay AIDS Network at pmercier@gcjfs.org.

SMART Ride Committee Meeting Saturday November 10th

Happy Beginning to the Holiday Season,

We all have a lot to be thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving, and I am thankful that I know and have come into contact with so many of you. This is a reminder that our next SMART Ride 2008 Committee meeting is going to be held on Saturday November 10th. (make a note on your calendar the meetings are the 2nd Saturday of each month) I know many of you are traveling from a distance, so the time agenda is as follows: 11:00am-12:30pm is the main Committee Meeting and then from 12:30pm-1:30pm is the Sponsorship Committee Meeting. Only the Agencies and those that have volunteered to be on the Sponsorship Committee will have to stay for the 2nd meeting. I will have an agenda and try to keep things moving along so that we are not there all day.

The meeting is located at:
Carmine's Clubhouse,
3004 NE 5TH Terrace WILTON MANORS, FL 33334
(Oakland Park Boulevard to 6th Avenue by Kmart, head south, entrance to apartment complex on right side before you cross the white bridge)

(Clubhouse is located behind the pool ground floor).
Please feel free to invite or bring along anyone you think might like to help us in the production of the ride over the next 15 months. See you on the 10th!

David

SHARE THE ROAD MEMORIAL RIDE

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UTE'S OCTOBER BLAST

THE SHARE THE ROAD MEMORIAL RIDE

Saturday, October 27, 2007

$30 donation

Cyclists of all levels are welcome. Even if you don't cycle, come and volunteer for a good cause!!

Flight attendant Ute Burkhardt, 38, was killed last year while cycling. She loved the fall months and A1A. She was a dedicated cyclist and an amazing lady. This ride is in her honor and to help benefit The Florida Bicycle Association and their involvement with cycling safety promotion, education, advocacy, and the Share the Road campaign.

The ride will be 36 miles starting at Downtown Bicycles in Ft. Lauderdale www.downtownbicycles.com and will proceed north on A1A to Spanish River Park in Boca Raton. There cyclists can enjoy refreshments before returning south back to the bike shop.

This ride is going to attract over 200 cyclists, but what will make this successful is the VOLUNTEERS!!! Volunteers will be needed at three places on the day of the ride: Rider check in and two rest stops that will be located near the Pompano Fishing Pier and Spanish River Park in Boca Raton.

Check out the website and forward it to all your cycling friends.

For more info, contact:

Karin Sanders

954-761-2393

954-594-8119 (cell)

Planning Meeting Saturday September 8th

On Saturday morning September 8th, there will be our first monthly planning meeting for The SMART Ride 2008.

This will be the first working meeting with all those looking to volunteer meeting with their committee heads for brainstorming and an "update" of the state of the union for 2008.

Many of you have volunteered to help out on everything from Sponsorship to Public Relations, Rider Representatives to Training and Outreach organizing. We can still use some individuals to help with administrative work from inputting pledges to mailing out rider packets. If you are interested in helping we would love to hear from you! If you can't make the meeting, please contact David Spacht, Ride Director at DavidSpacht@thesmartride.org.

Agenda is as follows:
11:00am-12:30pm Committee Meeting
12:30pm-1:30pm Sponsorship Committee Meeting

Location:
Carmine's Clubhouse
3004 NE 5TH Terrace
WILTON MANORS, FL 33334

(Oakland Park Boulevard to 6th Avenue by Kmart, head south, entrance to apartment complex on right side before you cross the white bridge)

(Clubhouse is located behind the pool on the 2nd floor of the building).

Join Us for Grease the Movie Friday, August 31st

Join Us on August 31st starting at 7:30PM for a night of fun. Sing a Long with this classic version of Grease!

Dress as your favorite 50's Kid (you could even work in your SMART Ride Shirt, Jersey or Hat)

There will be a raffle, pictures from past SMART Rides and more exciting opportunities.

If you have questions or can volunteer, contact DavidSpacht@thesmartride.org

2008 DATE IS NOW OFFICIAL

Mark your calendars for the weekend of November 14-15, 2008, that's right 2008.

The official kick off for the 2008 ride will happen Labor Day Weekend at Rosie's Bar and Grill in Wilton Manors. The Friday evening will be dedicated to raising awareness and act as our first official event and fund raiser for 2008.

So mark your calendars now for November 14th- 15th, 2008 and plan on joining us at Rosie's Bar and Grill on Friday evening, August 31st, 2007. We will show pictures under their BIG TENT (yes they are putting up a BIG TENT), catch a campy movie with us, and help us raise money so we can continue to guarantee 100% of what every rider and crew raises goes to charity.

We have many exciting announcements coming, a few new agencies to announce, some web site improvements coming your way.

We do still need people to join our committee and take on a few tasks for us. We need someone who likes to input data and someone to volunteer to send out new rider packets of information and welcome letters. The jobs are not overly time consuming, but must be done in a timely manner. The next general meeting, which we hope you will join us for is 9/8 at 11:00am. 3004 NE 5TH Terrace (off of 6th avenue across from KMart), Wilton Manors, Florida, 33334. Clubhouse is located behind the pool on the 2nd floor of the building.

If you can help with some of these tasks, please drop a note to DavidSpacht@thesmartride.org. Our monthly meetings start up again in September, and we hope we can count on many of you to become involved.

A Team Thank You

Dear friends:

It has taken us some time to absorb all the experiences we acquired during this amazing journey that started back in early December when we decided to participate in The SMART Ride. We knew it was going to be physically difficult and we knew that we would have to give up all of our leisure time for training. It was not a hard decision to make since this event was something that we believed in. Nevertheless, the training and sacrifices in our daily life were tough, especially since it required giving up every weekend for 3 months.

This has been the most personally rewarding and emotionally fulfilling event that we have ever been a part of. It is amazing how participating in such an event makes you feel so good to know that you are helping those in need.

As promised, we want to take you through the ride - from day one to the closing ceremonies.

Thursday

We left our home in West Palm Beach on Thursday lunchtime after loading up our SUV with all the gear, bicycles and luggage for the three day adventure. We picked up Mike and Joe before heading south to Fort Lauderdale to collect Ken. Mike brought enough luggage to last for a month vacation in Morocco rather than the 3 days planned in the Florida Keys, which was the theme of many jokes throughout trip!

We arrived in Miami (Coral Gables) at five in the afternoon at the registration site - a church retreat called "Morning Star". We were gracefully greeted by all the volunteers making the long registration process fun and easy to go through. We took the mandatory Safety Course for one hour and registered at the Hotel that was just a short drive away. We returned to the Morning Star later that evening for the Welcoming Ceremony and the "Carb Fest" dinner.

It was at that point when reality sunk in and we realized that we were part of something that was bigger than each of us. The huge group of 420 people were assembled together for a very simple reason...to help those in need. It was fantastic to meet cyclists from different parts of the state and country and to learn their reasons for riding. Some were riding for friends long gone, for lovers, for brothers, for sisters, for uncles, for grandsons or just because they cared about the cause. After that sensory overload, we returned to the hotel to get some well needed sleep ahead of the long task ahead!

Friday (First day of the ride)

Wake up time was 4:30 am! We arrived at the Morning Star by 5:30am for a huge breakfast prepared by one of the Sponsors. We ate as much as possible in order to store away as much energy as possible for the big ride. And Starbucks were there in their little van to help provide us with our necessary caffeine fix! The Opening Ceremonies started around 7am. They were informative and several leaders of the community, including the City Mayor, spoke to us. They all made us feel welcome, thanked us all for what we were about to do, stressed the safety issues and announced that the winds were going to be in our backs for most of the ride to Marathon Key. Minutes later we were on our way to the Key's - in great spirits ... our minds focused on the ride.

The ride started with a police escort for the first 3 miles. During this section, we all rode tightly together in a pack. Less than a mile into the ride, an unfortunate rider fell down after a plastic bag got trapped in his wheel causing his bike to jam. His face was pretty badly scraped up, requiring him to be taken away in an ambulance. This was a difficult start to the ride changing the mood immediately. It reminded us of the need to focus on safety at all times!

The most difficult part of the ride was between Coral Gables and Homestead because we had to go through city traffic, but after that point it was a straight shot all the way to Marathon Key. Pit stops were set up every 15-20 miles. Each pit stop was sponsored by a group who decorated their stop to make it fun for the riders. Each pit stop was a lot of fun (the Soul Pit Stop was hilarious!) and a welcome break in the action. Everything you could need was provided: water, gatorade, fruit, food, medical support, bike support, moral support. The amount of attention and support that we received was amazing. The positive energy of each pit stop let you forget how tired you were or how much your butt hurt, and inspired you to continue on to the next one. And they were great social events where we got to mingle with the other riders, share in the moment and motivate those that may have been struggling. It was here that we realized that we were one big team, encouraging each other to continue on with smiles on our faces!

The weather was gorgeous, the scenery breath taking. The hardest part of the ride was around the 40 mile mark when we had to go over the the steepest bridge that we had ever crossed. As we peddled up that bridge into a strong 20 mile/hour headwind, the pain in our legs was unbearable. We were powered by all of your support telling us "YOU CAN DO IT" .... and we did it! We will never forget when we reached the top of that bridge and looked out across the ocean .... it was breathtaking - worth the effort to get there! We then rode to our lunch stop at the 50 mile mark. Starbucks sponsored a great lunch of sandwiches and cookies. We took a well-deserved rest and ate everything in sight! We then carried on our way through the lower keys along US-1 to our first stop in Marathon at the Hawks Cay - 100 miles from the start - our very first CENTURY RIDE!!!!

We arrived Hawks Cay unharmed at four o'clock in the afternoon - tired, sweaty and with very painful butts, but with the satisfaction that we had made it to the end of the first day in one piece. We had an incredible sense of accomplishment and fulfillment ... we were so proud of ourselves.

That night Rosie's organized a cowboy-themed dinner for all the riders and volunteers. Representatives from the 5 different organizations that benefited from the money raised from the ride spoke to us about how the money would be used to make a difference in real people's lives. We were then able to allocate to which organizations we wanted our raised money to go to. This is one of the unique aspects of The Smart Ride. Not only does 100% of the money raised go directly to the charities, but the riders get to determine how 50% of their money raised is allocated. Prizes were also given out by lottery to the riders. Joaquin was one of the lucky ones, winning a gift pack! As you might understand, by 9:00 PM we were beyond exhausted and went straight to bed!

Saturday (second day of the ride)

Wake up time - 6:00 AM! We were still tired from the day before but excited to get going again. A full breakfast was catered by Rosie's. Again, we ate like the last supper in order to refill our bodies for the final leg of the ride. And Starbucks helped provide the caffeine again! We rode out of Marathon at 8am, into another beautiful sunny, clear day... and yes .. the wind still behind us!

Soon into the second day was the highlight of the ride ..... the 7 mile bridge. What an experience to cross that bridge by bike. It was truly spectacular to be in the middle of the ocean, on a bridge, on a bike! The colors of the water were gorgeous thanks to the sunny skies! And with the wind behind us, we were able to fly across the bridge at 30 miles/hour!

We must mention that we had friends from West Palm Beach that came down to provide support. They waited for us at each pit stop with their big hats and feathers. They provided a great sense of protection, caring and happiness to us. Thanks to all four of you (Scott,Omar, Scott and David)!

After several pit stops we arrived at the Baby's Coffee shop just fifteen miles from Key West. The owners of this store really opened their hearts to us. They put their store at our feet with everything available for free to all the riders. It felt wrong just taking food and drinks from the shelves without paying - but they encouraged us to do it! Mike had some problems with overheating on the second day due to the heat and the poor ventilation of the shirt he wore. But he kept in the fight until the last minute and made it to the end. Bravo Mike, we are proud of you!

We arrived into Key West at 1PM. We all met at a park until everyone arrived, and then we regrouped into a big pack and were led through the streets of Key West by the local police. As we passed down Duval Street, the whole city came out into the streets to cheer us on. It was very emotional for all, but we kept the tears at bay until we arrived to The AIDS Memorial and the riderless bike came through, symbolizing the people that had fallen to the AIDS Pandemic. Of course.... at this point.... we all lost it and sobbed on each others shoulder. Through our tears we bonded together, to create awareness and sensitivity among all fellow humans to prevent others from dying from this disease. Because AIDS belongs to the world, and we have to fight against it together. It is time to wake up, it is time to fight harder, it is time to realize that AIDS is spreading and it is just a matter of time before it touches us closer and closer.

We wanted to thank our sponsors, David Daucanski, that gifted over $10,000.00 worth of free advertising to be displayed in the buses of Broward county; Mike Hammel and George English from Sweet Tomatoes that provided the members of the ride with food for the Friday Breakfast and $2,000.00 worth of gift certificates for the volunteers of the ride; Bruce Leet from The Breakers Hotel for a complimentary weekend get away price package and Joel Padin from Ruth's Chris Steak House for their dinner certificate price package.

Thank you again to all that made this journey possible and successful with your pledges. Thanks to your support we were able to exceed our $10,000.00 goal. We have made the commitment to do it all over again next year and hope that we can count on your support again.

Sincerely,

Xavier & Joaquin

Photos abound...

Check out the photos submitted by Rob by visiting gogokeywest.com and southernmostgay.com

Enjoy the memories!!!