The team at Smiddy have set themselves a goal to raise a staggering $1 million dollars for 2013. I believe we will do this due to five reasons:
1.The platform to raise this money is through ten Smiddy events for 2013; these include:
•NSW Smiddy 600km’s over 4 days Feb 27- March 2
•Noosa Smiddy 600km’s over 4 days April 25-28
•Midi Smiddy 560km’s over 3 days May 17-19
•Smiddy French Alps 700km’s over 5 days June 17-21
•Second Smiddy French Alps 700km’s over 5 days June 26-30
•Smiddy Challenge 1600km’s 8 days from Brisbane to Townsville September 7-14
•Sharky’s OZ 7in7 1200km’s 7days Adelaide to Melbourne September 18-24
•Sharky’s OZ 7in7 1200km’s 8 day lap of Tassie, September 26-October 2
•Smiddy Noosa Triathlon, Olympic distance, November 3
•Smiddy Busselton Ironman distance, December 8
Most of these events are already full but we still have a few remaining slots into Ironman Busselton, Noosa Smiddy, Tassie Smiddy, the Midi Smiddy and the first French Alps Tour. If you are keen don’t be shy, get in touch and I will get you sorted.
2.The second reason I think we will reach our $1 million goal is due to the incredible athletes we have on board this year. Smiling for Smiddy began because I lost my mate to Melanoma cancer. A huge portion of the 300 Smiddy ambassadors that we have doing our events this year have suffered their own losses through the tragic hand that cancer delivers. These Smiddy athletes are determined to make a difference -just as all past Smiddy athletes’ have- through their actions of raising valuable funds for research, spreading the Smiddy story and helping us to educate people that without organisations such as Smiling for Smiddy and the Mater Foundation and thousands of other charity platforms, research would come to a grinding halt.
3.Of course the third reason is our valuable sponsors that not only get behind Smiling for Smiddy and the Mater, but do it year after year after year! It would be remiss of me not to mention Bottlemart and the CEO Doug Misener. Since 2007 this amazing company not only gives Smiling for Smiddy a stack of cash to run our events, meaning more of your donated dollar goes to research, but Doug and their company in Sydney help us to run the NSW Smiddy event that last year brought in $150,000. We are expecting to top that this year. Since 2007 Bottlemart, with their financial support and help with additional fund raising has seen this amazing company raise over $1 million dollars for Smiling for Smiddy. Then we have people like Pete Dyer at Sealy Posturepedic , Peter Grayson at Red Roo, Jo Stewart at Tineli, Jimmy Acomb at Bikology, John Heffernan at Megaburn Nutrition, The Allsports Physio team, UQ Sport, Kokoda Spirit, Avanti Plus, Jacobs Creek, Scott Bikes, One Steel, Maxxis Tyres and Powerade. All these sponsors keep our costs down to a bare minimum and help us to pump more funds back into research.
4.Our passionate road crew for each Smiddy event. These beautiful people give up their time each year to not only look after the riders every need but do their own fund raising as well. I can’t mention them all but old Captain Kevvy Enchelmaier exemplifies what all our road crew represent. A passion to do their bit to make a difference. While they may not ride a bike, their roles and involvement are just as important -if not more important- that the actual riding, for without them no Smiddy event would be possible. Kevvy lost his Father to cancer, he is retired and has done nearly every Smiddy event as our rear driver since 2007. We are indeed very fortunate to have Kevvy and many like him for Team Smiddy.
5.And last but not least are our amazing and generous donors. Without them there would be no Smiddy story. It is their support, year after year, that not only keeps Smiddy afloat, but keeps hope alive for victims of cancer and ensuring that the valuable research machine keeps steam rolling ahead!
Well that’s it from me. As you can see I have a busy year ahead of me. My goal is to start and finish each of the ten events, which equates to a staggering 7,500 kilometres of riding in events alone. The kilometres I will log in training will account for a further 10,000 kilometres. Madness I hear a lot of people say, but for me each Smiddy event brings me closer to my mate Adam Smiddy. For it is when I am on the bike that I know Adam is joining me -laughing at me at times- shaking his head and whispering in my ear; “Smoothy ya silly bugger, all this fuss you’ve made in my name, I’m embarrassed by it all but proud of what you and the team have achieved.”
And that is surely true; I am proud and humbled by the generosity and kindness of the thousands of people I have come into contact with since Adam’s passing in 2006.
I look forward to bringing you the blogs from the NSW Smiddy which starts this coming Wednesday.
In the meantime if you would like to help me get my fundraising off to an early start I have included my Everyday Hero link below.
I hope all my readers are happy and in good health and please feel free to drop me a line in the comments section or to sharky@smiddy.org.au
Cheers.
Sharky
http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/mark_smoothy_8
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