The Good, the Bad and the (not so) Ugly.......

The Good .... the 2011 DVD  

The race was on to get the 2011 DVD finished and "on sale" before Edson and I left Toronto. The DVD is meant to be a memento, documentary, recruitment aid & fund raiser so it was a difficult task balancing all of those requirements into a single film and to keep it interesting.


After hundreds of hours editing & DVD production and almost a divorce Edson & I (with help from James, Mark, Tim, Mike, Rob, John & others ) finished the DVD just before Christmas.

The DVD production was all the more rewarding as we decided to try and do the best job we could and use the ideal music. That meant getting permission from every Artist/writer we wanted to feature. 


Edson was skeptical that we could achieve this as it it notouriously difficult but when I contacted David Bowie/Brain Eno's ('HEROES') & Jimmy James ('FASHIONISTA') for permission on the music usage as well as Edson's contacts we very pleasantly surprised when WE ACTUALLY GOT FREE PERMISSION from everyone we asked. 


What a result! Way beyond our expectations.


We did a screening at the Buddies In Bad Times Theatre in Toronto with about 45 people in attendance. It proved to be a very enjoyable night. Certainly the audience seemed to be clapping and laughing in all the right places. 


Thank you to all who came along and were so generous with your donations. 


The Bad .... the new t-shirt logo...

In an attempt to raise some more cash Edson and I came up with the idea of a stylish logo not containing the official corporate sponsorship and emphasizing the achievement of the 600km rather than the " it's a good cause" message. We got lots of support in the Firkin on a Thursday (that bastion of good taste) so away we went and did the design and ordered the clothes.


Anyway to cut a long story short I got a phone call from the man in charge at PWA expressing concern at dilution of the Bike Rally brand. So after much discussion we agreed I could sell what I had already ordered and we call it a day. Lots of heated conversations on the rights and wrongs of this decision but ultimately we are all on the same side so no point into getting into a war with PWA over fundraising techniques.


The clothes proved popular especially the red t-shirts and the fleeces. Thanks once again to everyones generosity we raised about $500. 


Its a pity we got stopped on this one - it could have been a gold mine. 


The (not so) ugly... Richard & Adam are all set

Edson very graciously let me take the bicycle we got for him in Toronto for one of the boys as it is far easier to buy bikes in London than Gijon so I delivered the Argon to Spain this weekend. We found a bike for Richard courtesy of their uncle: so now they had bikes we went shopping for the basics. 


Lights, bell, tools, pants, shirts, shoes, clips, pedals and rucksacks (for the trip) all bought fitted, attached and ready to go! Lessons given on gear changes and punctures. 


All they have to do is to get on the damn things and ride them.


Fundraising progress .. 
So where are we now?  Without soliciting individuals (yet) we have tried to raise money in exchange for something in return - T Shirts - DVDs - Tokens etc. and as you have read some have been more successful than others but we are still trying to find novel ways of raising as much as we can before we come with the begging bowls.

So far we have raised $1,380 of our $8,800 target. This does not included DVD sales via the web-site which I think puts us nearer $1,800. A decent start and hopefully at the 2012 Launch event we should have more DVD sales ...... hopefully. 


Also PWA have allowed us this year to the trial for the concept of "family fundraising" ... much dispute and discussion over this concept which I will go into next blog ..... probably from Singapore :o) 


Onward and upward .......


TTFN
David Edson Richard & Adam