We have found that the major upside is that the industries we are in is (Rob Gardner – Cariboo Ford Service Manager and Amarjit Sull – teacher) that it's easy to communicate with the community and keep people in the know.
We are people that enjoy speaking and communicating with the community and we have found the majority of our community is interested in BC Children’s Hospital and many are interested in supporting.
The up side is that we have come across many people that want to contribute financially, or providing sponsorship with items that we can use during our trek and most of all we have found community members are willing to volunteer and donate their personal time to bring ideas for fundraising and increasing awareness.
There have been downsides as well as we prepare this cycling event. People sometimes may not take us seriously at the time we present our idea to them as a few have felt that the cause is linked outside of the community.
We expected that we may face a downside to our fundraising efforts but our major objective is to spread awareness of the BC Children’s Hospital. In Quesnel we have found that our community is directly linked to BC Children’s hospital as we all know at least one person that has visited B.C. Children’s.
That can be a family member or friend. By sharing our personal stories from B.C. Children’s and the stories shared on the Quesnel Cycling Facebook page we have turned the downside into a positive.
All the businesses here are awesome – nothing but supportive and eager to help. We have had business owners sit us down over coffee to hear our story. We have had business owners provide us with sponsorship of goods to aid us during the cycling events.
Most importantly we are honored with the feedback from our community and business owners as they are providing us with uplifting advice and most importantly positive reinforcement.
Also a big challenge is the physical and mental prep as we prepare for the 600 + km fundraiser. Rob has been training hard with Brian and Spencer at the Acceleration Centre and Archie equally at the Quesnel Rec Centre.
The roads are cleaner and we both have logged approximately 60km in the last week getting our legs and breathing in motion as we transition from rollers and stationary bikes to the roads and highways.
Gardner had completed a cycling ride to Whistler 10 years ago following the same route and mentally is ready as the road and hills are fresh in his mind.
For Amarjit Sull, one of the biggest challenges is mentally cycling at a pace that conserves energy over the seven days. I usually prepare by cycling one way to Prince George or sprinting to Alexandria and back for 125 km, 160 km granfondo events which is different than a long seven day endurance event. Part of every day is mentally not sprinting – my biggest challenge.
Quesnel Cycling is Rob Gardner and Armajit (Archie) Sull. They are riding to Whistler this summer to raise funds for the B.C. Children’s hospital.
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