A message from our friend Mike McGarry:
Madison and Dane County Bike Community,
Many of you know me but for those of you that do not my name is Mike McGarry. I am the head coach of the Madison West and Verona Area Composite mountain bike clubs. I started the club five years ago with a handful of students who were already riding bikes at the time. Over the course of that first year, I quickly realized that the club and NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) were about much more than mountain bike racing.
As the team has grown I have seen young people grow into leaders, problem-solvers, helpers, cheerleaders (for every rider, not just their teammates), shredders, and mountain-bike racers. This transformation is amazing to see and available to anyone that opens themselves up to these clubs and the sport of mountain biking.
This club is one of the most important things that I have done with my life and I want to make sure that it is open to everyone.
In order to make that dream a reality we need money. The club has grown and we will most likely have over 70 student-athletes this year. That requires a lot of volunteer coaches. Those coaches are held to very high professional standards for a volunteer. I don’t want coaches to have to pay to volunteer. We have families that don’t currently have bikes for their kids. That requires loaner bikes and the funds to maintain and repair them. We have families that are not able to pay the full team, league, and NICA fees, and I cannot allow money to be a barrier to students finding a sport that they can believe in and that believes in them.
I believe in the transformative power of biking.
We need your help to make that happen for more kids in Dane County.
Please register for the Crank-A-Thon and Parents’ Night Out (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crank-a-thon-2018-parents-night-out-tickets-46486241600.
We have raised just over $1000 of our $5000 goal. We need your support and the support of your family and friends. Please share the RallyMe site with your community (https://www.rallyme.com/rallies/12704/crank-a-thon2018.
If you’d go out on a Saturday night and spend more than $40 dollars on dinner and two cocktails each then you need to buy tickets for Parents Night Out and invite your friends, they don’t have to be parents of a current student-athlete.
If you like riding bikes in the dirt and think shredding Pleasant View and Blackhawk is RAD then you need to register for the Crank-A-Thon. All student-athletes can register for free! Adults are only $40 for 4 hours of shredding (you don’t have to ride all 4 hours).
You have the opportunity be a part of something awesome that matters to kids.
What we are doing matters!This is the next generation of riders, trail-builders, and members of our community. Come out and give them your support!
