A Little More on the Raffle
$37,505
As many of you know, we held a little fundraiser over 9 days that ended Saturday (the first day of summer 2008). The fundraiser benefited the LAF, who has been very helpful to a friend of Ibis who has cancer. A $5 raffle ticket bought you a ticket, the grand prize being a brand new Ibis SilkSL road bike with full Dura Ace group (generously donated by Shimano).
Here are the results, by the numbers:
- 1234 people entered the raffle.
- We raised $37,505 for the LiveStrong Challenge in 9 days.
- More than 100 people donated $5 — the cost of one raffle ticket.
- More than 100 people donated $100 or more.
- The average donation was $30.
- One person donated $500.
- The person who won the bike worked an extra shift at his job at a Seattle restaurant in order to be able to afford to donate $100.
- Bicycling.com, BikeRadar.com, and Bike Snob NYC — three of the most popular bike destination sites on the Web — all linked in to the contest.
This went way, way beyond our expectations.
Our friend Elden Nelson, creator of The Fat Cyclist is married to Susan who is fighting a particularly nasty recurring bout of breast cancer. Elden said to me in an email yesterday: “Early in 2007, Susan found out that her breast cancer had come back and had metastasized. It has come back with a vengeance, with tumors in her bones (ribs, hips, and pelvis) lungs, liver, and spine.”
Elden continued: “But then, in May ‘08, Susan suddenly lost the ability to do simple things like tie a bow, drive a car, or walk without falling. The cancer had gone to her brain. Not just one or two tumors, either. Dozens. All over the place.”
Bear in mind that despite all this, Elden wanted the raffle proceeds to go to LAF, not to the Nelson family. They have good health insurance and wanted the Foundation to receive the proceeds so they could continue to help folks in need.
I’m amazed at the Nelson family, what they are fighting and how generous the can be in spite of all this. And I’m totally amazed at the generosity of the Ibis folk out there who have graciously donated. Says a lot about a lot of people out there. I should also mention the generosity of the readers of The Fat Cyclist, who also donated in huge numbers.
A bit about our winner.
Our winner is Matt from Seattle. Congratulations Matt! He’s got a blog apparently, and already wrote about his great surprise he got last Saturday. I guess Matt saw the raffle and bought $100 worth of raffle tickets. That was a good decision it turns out.
Once again, thanks to everyone who donated.
