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Tour de Georgia
2005
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"We have two options in life,
both medically and emotionally, give up or fight like hell."
- Lance Armstrong
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We started Friday in Hiawassee, Ga. The climb of the day, and the Tour was Brasstown Bald. I had heard it was a nasty climb, but I had never been there. There wasn't much parking at the top of the mountain, so we got up early to beat the crowd. Michael and Jennifer rode with us to save having another car on the mountain. It was a tight fit because we were still loaded with LAF info and several cases of our yellow Lance Fans. The fans had been very popular, not only because they were clever with the, Lance Fan, on one side and LAF info on the other, but it had been very hot throughout the Tour and everyone just wanted a fan! Before the riders got to the mountain, Angie and I took a case of Lance fans and hiked to the top, so we could line the final climb with yellow support for Lance. It was a very steep climb and we knew it would be a critical stage for the Tour.
We finally made it back down
to the booth to wait on the riders. We were all a bit surprised at how crowded
it was on the mountain. They had shuttles running people up and down because of
the lack of parking. I snuck away from the booth just long enough to get a
couple of pictures as Lance rode Renee and Allison from the LAF headquarters in Austin arrived today, also. We don't get to see them as much as we'd like to, even though we talk regularly. I think they got a kick out of seeing our LAF sales pitch to whoever walked by. Everybody wanted a Lance fan, but when they stopped at the booth to get one, they had to listen to Angie's speech about the LAF, LiveStrong, the Peloton Project, LAF Community efforts, shower cards...then they got their fan. By that time they were usually already digging in their pockets to make a donation, as well.
Next stop, Alpharetta and the
last day. This would be the biggest day for the Georgia Healthy Expo, as there
would be double the amount of booths as other days. At the LAF booth we were
joined by Peloton Project members Seth and Andy. They were having a big
fundraising At one point, as I looked around and wondered where Angie was, I glanced up in time to see her zip by on the back of Brock's scooter. She had seen him riding by earlier and mentioned she wanted to go for a ride. Brock was happy to oblige.
Angie and I had started the
Tour with about 150 t-shirts that we accepted LAF donations for and we had two
left as we setup the booth for the day. They were both gone before we even had
everything in place. We passed out the remainder of the fans that day and were
close to running out of materials. Everything was planned about right.
One of the most meaningful
moments of the week took place late that day when a young girl stopped by with
her friends. She was wearing a scarf to cover her bald head from her chemo
treatments. Allison and Renee were telling her about the LAF and scrabbling to
give her every piece of information we had. After she had everything we had to
give her, Renee suddenly pulled off her yellow LiveStrong band and placed it on
her wrist. The bands aren't even out yet, but Renee had one from the LAF Gala
she had gotten the previous weekend. As the young girl started walking away, I
reached back and grabbed one of the Lance photos that we had been accepting
donations for and caught her and gave her the picture. By this time we were all
crying, but we had given her the three things that I believe a cancer survivor
needs most - Hope, Information and Support. We had one more stop after the Tour finished that evening at a fundraiser for the LAF. There was plenty of good food, a very cold beer that called my name and some cycling celebs in Davis Phinney and the Bobke. It was a fun evening which raised several thousand dollars for LAF and drained the last bit of energy we had.
Lance won the Tour de Georgia and we were headed back home the next morning, after a great week of promoting the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Angie and I were feeling pretty good about the week until she called her office to let them know when she would be in, as we were 15 minutes from being home. It was then that she found out a co-worker had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had surgery while we were gone. Even with all we had done and the hundreds of people we had talked to the past week, it suddenly felt like we weren't doing enough. Guess we'll just keep working and hope it makes a difference somewhere down the line. |