Volunteer for the “Ride, for Pete’s Sake” Raising Funds for Cerebral Palsy Research Through the Pedal with Pete Foundation

Won’t you join our team of can-do, enthusiastic volunteers and help the “Ride, for Pete’s Sake” get even better results in raising funds for cerebral palsy research?

For the last 7 years, this bike ride, offering routes from 7 miles all the way up to 100, has built a reputation as being one of the best-run rides in central Ohio!  This is thanks to a fantastic team of volunteers who organize the food, entertainment, support, prizes, and sponsors so the riders have an outstanding day.

Through this event, we raised significant funds for CP research: over $173,000 in 7 years.  Nationally, CP funding is much lower than it needs to be.  CP affects 3.6 in 1,000 births, and is the most common childhood physical disability.  Our efforts are greatly needed!

This is a chance to put your compassion into action.  The positive feeling you get from helping families impacted by CP is wonderful.  Some of our volunteers call the “Ride, for Pete’s Sake” event “the best day of my year!” 

The volunteers work from February through September, and the event this year is Saturday, August 15th.  You can work as little as 4 hours on Saturday, August 15, or you can commit to the ride preparation work, anywhere from 10 hours total up to 3 hours per week to even 6-10 hours per week for the event leader; we have work that fits your time schedule. 

• Are you friendly and outgoing?  We can use your help to reach out to businesses to secure their support (financially as sponsors, with products for prizes, or with food, T-shirts, and printing supplies for the ride).  We can use your help to reach out to CP families to involve them in the event.  On ride day, Saturday, August 15th, you can pass out food or maps to the riders and create the atmosphere of fun that all the riders tell us is unbeatable. 

• Are you creative and a good writer or speaker?  We can use your help in promotions!  We need your help writing letters to sponsors, our rider base, and helping individual riders write letters to their contacts to drum up sponsorships. We need help publicizing the ride with press releases, radio spots, public service announcements on TV, and postings on dozens of web sites. You can speak at schools and organizations to spread the word about our ride and the cause.  You can write or edit letters that express our heartfelt thanks to all who make our results possible.
• Are you a leader who knows how to put together an event or run a project team?  You can run our monthly Tuesday night meetings, and manage our spreadsheet of tasks, doing the delegation, follow-up, and making sure the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.
• Are you good with technology, particularly web sites and social media?  We are ready to dive into facebook and twitter and leverage the web to keep our stakeholders tuned into the excitement that builds before the ride through the donation of funds and even through hearing the results of the research we fund.  We want to generate buzz with all the technology at our disposal.
• Are you good at logistics and streamlining processes without missing the crucial details?  You can help process our pre-registrations and donations before the ride, or on Saturday, August 15th, you can work the registration table and welcome the deluge of riders who nearly come all at once early that morning
• Are you an experienced rider who knows what it takes to create a great ride?  You can help finalize the route, tweak the instructions and the maps, mark the route around the weekend of August 8 and 9, or support the riders on the road on August 15th with your support vehicle.

As you can see, it takes a lot of volunteer talent and energy to pull off the “Ride, for Pete’s Sake” and raise this money. 

The rewards are tremendous!

• for the families impacted by CP who know that people care,
• for the riders who enjoy the ride,
• for everyone (volunteers, riders, sponsors) who know they are making a difference by funding much needed CP research, and most importantly,
• for the beneficiaries of the cerebral palsy research that we fund.

Please join us! 

To learn more about how to get involved in this great event for a fantastic cause - the funding of cerebral palsy research - contact:

• Michelle Sotz, PwP Volunteer Director, at (614) 226-6500 or pwp@pedalwithpete.org
• or Cathy Levy, PwP Columbus Chair, at (614) 527-0202

To learn more about the ride, contact Cathy, or visit http://www.pedalwithpete.org

 go to the Columbus Pedal-with-Pete web site