I was writing a long rambling race report for you guys, but it accidently got shot off into cyberspace prematurely and it seems to have been irretrievabley lost, I will just stick to the facts. Lucky you!
Anyhow, as you all know, we threw a race for Rico Palacios last night in DC and Copenhagen threw a race last weekend. Through over sixty paying racers, donations and the sale of a ton of raffle tickets for a custom Cap City Sack by Lyndsey from DC, we were able to raise $2035.00 for Rico. Copenhagen was able to raise $500.00.
Now here comes the good part:
I was contacted through April Sauerwine about someone who wanted to match any collected funds with his own personal donation. We were speechless. Even then, we hoped to raise maybe five or six hundred dollars, but the local outpouring was insane. Over two thousand dollars!!! You all rock!!!
That person turned out to be none other than Larry Parks!!! And not only did he match the $2000 from us, he matched the $500.00 from Copenhagen. That means he donated $2,500 to bring the grand total amount to $5,000.00 dollars! Larry, you are a prince amongst men, my friend!!! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!
Yeah, you heard right!
FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS UNITED STATES CURRENCY!!!
Now that is insane!
Lola and us are trying to figure out the best way for this to be given to Rico's mom with minimal taxes and so.
Rico is still in a delicate situation, but he mother speaks in terms of long term recovery. Hopefully this money will help her relieve the financial burden that accidents like this seem to impose on the family of the hurt. It is enough that she has to worry about Rico without having to worry about money!
I'd like to thank the sponsors Kryptonite and Crumpler for not even hesitating to send down prizes on short notice.
To Manhattan Portage who threw in some bags via the NYC crew that came down and KICKED ASS, placing 2nd through 4th and half of the top ten, plus top woman!!!
To One Less Car for the scwhagg! I de-badged my Fuji to put a FREEDOM stciker on it. The Inconsiderate Driver stickers were a hit, as were the sweet T-shirts.
WABA (Maggie and Eric) threw in some sweet stuff, especially those fleece jackets!
Thanks to Big Jonny at drunkcyclist.com for posting the race on his site.
Again, we just want to thank all those who donated time, money or talent to come out in support of Rico and his mom.
I am sure he is feeling the love!!!
The results are as follows. The top four were tied for points. They were determined by finishing place.
1. az. dc. 5800 pts 1st place overall!!!
2. ken stanek. nyc. 5800 pts 1st out of town (go team b.a.d.a.s.s.!)
3. squid. nyc. 5800 pts (thanks for racing, bro!)
4. dan chunk. nyc. 5800 pts
5. dan g. dc. 5600 pts
6. bruce bearn. dc. 5590 pts (trivia would have put him in first! gerardo is from ecuador.)
7. eric gilliland. dc. 5040 pts (representin' Washington Area Bicyclist Asscociation)
8. bega. dc. 4880 pts (my first alleycat was a bega race. thanks for racing. 35 miles? ouch!)
9. coach. dc. 4570 pts
10. johnny. nyc. 4240 pts
11. john lowe. boston. 4220 pts
12. ellen. nyc. 4210 pts (top female and the only woman racer to go by the checkpoint manned by my wife and son and his friend- are there laws against having 8-year olds manning checkpoints???)
13. christopher. vienna. 4200 pts
14. ken medley. dc. 4110 pts (what happened to tony?)
15. miles. dc. 4090 pts (you told me about rico, that got the ball rolling. thanks!)
16. sebastian. dc. 3950 pts (go demoncats!!!)
17. zach. dc. 3940 pts
18. kevin murphy. dc. 3900 pts (good race)
19. lola. dc. 3700 pts
20. kevin murphy's friend. dc. 3700 pts (he found your manifest)
21. krieg. ?. 3700 pts
22. marcus. arlington. 3580 pts
23. jenny. dc. 3500 pts
24. kevin keefe. dc. 3170 pts
25. dave sachs. dc. 3160 pts
26. nick. arlington. 3000 pts
27. chris dominican. nyc. 2800 pts
28. peter lee. dc. 2800 pts
29. matt styer. harrisonburg. 1970 pts (his h-burg races are legendary! see ya next year!)
30. kurt rosenburger. harrisonburg. 1930 pts.
31. unknown. unknown. 760 pts
32. joe joe chopper. burke. 750 pts
33. kevin costello. dc. 300 pts (didn't you win the simpson's jeorpardy race 2 weeks ago?)
Anyway guys, that's it!
Once again, thanks to all who particpated, donated or volunteered.
Also once again, THANX TO LARRY PARKS!!! You took a great event and made it twice as good! YOU ROCK!!!
Racing for Victory and to the thought of Rico getting better!!!
John
Demon Cats
Thanks to "DC Rob" Downs for including the "Rico Suave Alleycat" benefit race as part of the plan for celebrating "30 years of Rob'ery." Huevos at Asylum and then the absolutely freakin' freezing ride leading up to the race were most outstanding. Arrived at Dupont just as things got going - great timing!
After buying our raffle tickets and donating the beer money, Scott and I headed up to man/woman our checkpoint. Happily, it was an excellent Salvadoran / Mexican restaurant on Georgia Avenue NW about 1 block south of the Maryland border. We thought none of the racers would make it up there, but were we wrong! These guys (and gals, Lola) are most harDCore. We had probably 15 (or 1/4 of all the racers) make it up there in the freezing cold. Excellent!
Checkpoint duty for us ended at 6:00 PM (as this was a timed stop), but the after-party didn't start until 7:00PM, so we leisurely continued stuffing our stomachs with El Tamarindo's fabulous food. Got to the after-party on Columbia Road where we quickly learned that at least $1600 and possibly $1900 had been raised by the entry fees and raffle ticket sales. I was absolutely stunned to learn today (see message from the Demon Cats below) that the total take, including money from some bikers in Copenhagen and the extremely generous matching funds, has brought the total to $5000! Simply amazing and deeply gratifying to see the courier community come together like this to assist one of their fallen brethren.
It is my sincerest hope that through my sharing of Rico's tragedy and the subsequent outpouring of generosity from the bicycle messenger community and beyond, that all the DC/MD/VA/PA scooterists step up to the plate when needed as the couriers have for Rico. Seems like we can get caught up in our own group dynamic and drama A LOT! I know the response to the NO scooterists after Katrina had been most supportive and that's great - keep it up! My heart is overflowing with gratitude for these wonderful people who have set aside their own agendas - if only for one day - to try to make things in this world a little more OK.
Thank you:
John for organizing a great big event on short notice and still managing to get all the little extras done.
Lola for jumping right in to work w/ Rico's mom (Ella habla espanol).
April for the accounting of the funds raised and the connection to Copenhagen and the matching funds.
Larry for the matching funds!!!
??? (I have no brain right now) for the excellent spoke cards as another source of revenue.
Lynsay (sp?) for the prize bag and the other sponsors as well.
Maggie and the WABA.
Of course, the DCBCA.
The boys at the CHRONIC for opening their home to us.
Jesse and Caleb for representing Apple Courier (sort of).
And all who came out to race for Rico.
I don't know what more to say. I'm overwhelmed. This is beautiful.
Libby