Posts in category 'touralbertaforcancer'

I know it’s a cliche, but it’s genuinely hard to believe how fast time flies. Not only am I over a year into this career break–a fact that I continue to have trouble processing–but now the 2024 Tour Alberta for Cancer is done and dusted. To my surprise, despite the trepidation I felt this time last year, in a lot of ways 2024 was the easiest Tour yet.

Why?

Well, I’ve said it so many times already, but the greatest credit goes to the many people who donated to my campaign this year. Its through your incredible generosity that we were able to raise $2,783 this year, well past my $2,500 goal. As for the Tour overall, we were able to blow past the $6M goal, raising an incredible $7,576,204!

Even more heartening for me is the rise in participation. While last year saw over 1,200 riders on the Tour (which is a fantastic number!), this year saw that number grow 17% to over 1,400 participants. While I’m far from an old timer (this was my third in person ride following the COVID shutdown of 2020), I was thrilled to encounter so many first-time folks, and did what little I could to make them feel supported and welcome. Let’s all hope that, like me, they find themselves compelled to join future Tours.

And yes, if you’re reading between the lines a bit, you can guess that I did indeed sign to participate in the 2025 Tour Alberta for Cancer! But I promise to give everyone a break from the fundraising emails… for a little while anyway (it turns out last year there was an early match in the fall of 2023 so you might see some canvassing a little earlier this time around, assuming I stay on top of things).

With all that said, let’s get to the fun stuff, and that begins with an announcement of the third and final sock draw winner!

It recently dawned on me that I hadn’t posted an update about the tour since June 20th when I hit my fundraising goal. Yet, despite the radio silence, it’s not as though nothing has been happening! Certainly life has been happening, with a trip to Regina to visit family during that period. But the biggest thing that’s been happening is training. So. Much. Training.

Of course, everyone on the tour, from the riders to the volunteers to the event organizers will tell you the Tour is not a race. And it absolutely isn’t! The event is first and foremost a drive to raise funds for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. As for the riders, the primary goal is to finish while enjoying the event for the reward that it is. As I’ve said before, the event itself is an absolute joy to participate in; the large group ride, surrounded by fellow fundraisers and cyclists, is an experience that’s difficult to describe unless you’ve done it or something similar.

But let’s admit it, for a lot of us, we want to not just finish the ride but perform well, and to do that requires training.

And so I’ve been riding. A lot.

I am so very excited to announce that, as of today, I’ve hit my goal for my Tour Alberta for Cancer fundraising campaign! The key was Taber Cares, which held a donation matching event for up to $200,000 in donations to ride participants. Between my own self-donation, a couple of timely contributions from folks in my network, and the equivalent matching donations, all those funds pushed me over the top!

Of course, the fundraising doesn’t stop there. While reaching the $2,500 goal secures my participation in the in-person ride, I will certainly keep pushing to raise even more, as every dollar to the Alberta Cancer Foundation funds critical programs here in the province.