Open House: Archives

Let the herding of the cats begin!

As a trustee on the board of the National MS Society Greater Northwest Chapter I have been enlisted to help promote the Bike MS fundraiser ride in September. I could do like I did last year and recruit staff, family and friends to ride on Team PBDH. But how can I make a bigger contribution to this annual effort? Maybe form some bigger team that could make a difference to the MS community as well as the riders who participate. Thus was born Team AIGA: Helvetica's Angels.

AIGA, the professional association for design, stimulates thinking about design, demonstrates the value of design and empowers the success of designers at each stage of their careers. AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. Because of this mission I thought it would be great to show the rest of the community how people in the design profession are caring, generous, active people.

People get involved with Bike MS for various reasons: they know someone with MS (the Northwest has the highest occurance of MS per capita of anywhere in the world), they are bike enthusiasts looking for a fun and fully supported ride, they've never done something like this before and want a goal to work towards, or they love to party with their friends.

So here's what we hope to achieve with this team: Fight MS, Bring public awareness of AIGA/designers, Build AIGA team spirit, Instill a sense of community responsibility.

The ride:
Starts and stops at the Skagit County Fairgrounds in Mt. Vernon, WA. September 11 + 12.
Various kinds of people… racers, beach cruisers, unicyclists, non-riders.
Various distances/terrain… anything from 22-92 miles… hilly or flat.
Fully supported, scenic… 6 catered meals, medical, mechanics, Deception Pass Bridge!
Party! Team tents… Teams have their own tents and have parties. Hopefully manned by AIGA volunteers.
Beer garden (nuff said).

The Team

· Recruiting… give them cards to hand out to their friends and family. You don’t have to be an AIGA member to ride or volunteer.

· Group rides… there will be a couple group rides prior to the event, just for fun. You will be notified of dates and times after you register.

· Kits… each firm can supply their staff with their own bike kits (jerseys, shorts) and we will supply some sort of AIGA addition people can wear. Whether or not riders have kits, T-shirts will also be produced and need to be purchased by either the firms or the individuals. These can be worn during or after the ride.

· Registration… It costs $55/rider, but use discount code TEAMUP ($10 off). Also, Monday, June 21st the discount code HALFOFF10 (case sensitive) has been created, giving users 50% off the regular registration fee. The code will automatically activate at 12:00 a.m. on June 21st and inactivate at 12:00 a.m. on June 22nd. Also each rider must raise $250. Sounds daunting to young designers, but it just means $25 from 10 friends… it’s not that hard (you can always hit up your parents if your friends are losers). Have them use their Facebook and Twitter accounts to solicit bucks. Each rider gets a fundraising page on the MS site and can use it to fundraise. Make sure they specify our team when they register: Team AIGA: Helvetica’s Angels

· If you would like someone from MS to come and present this info to your group, let me know.

To Register:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/WASBikeEvents/1921674961?...

Any questions: Karl Bischoff @ Phinney Bischoff Design House: karlb@pbdh.com: 206.322.3484

Let’s make it happen!

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