BT Raffle to support TH3_FRB from his accident. READ AND SUPPORT!!

As everyone has heard and is aware, our forum compadre Joel Bell (TH3_FRB) was involved in a hit and run while riding his bike just days after smokin' the Boston marathon course and setting a PR. For those that have been out of the loop completely, here is the thread:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

He is back online and back on his feet - with crutch support - and excited and determined as ever to get back to training. As part of the original thread we started another to bring in donations to help our fellow BT'er get back to living again and were trying to figure out how to use the donations that were being given with the original thought being to help him replace his bike, or at least get it fixed up back to normal. He will also have mounting doctor's bills, possible lawyer fees, and missed work days not to mention the amount of money he has already spent for race entry fees for future races that are non-refundable. So I asked him how he would like to approach the donation aspect and what he may foresee as its use. And he had a great idea.

Being the type of person that he is, he suggested figuring out some way that he could give back to the community that has been part of his recent life and has been so gracious in it's concern and outpouring of positive vibes. The thought of some sort of raffle came up with the donations collected from it being used to possibly win some sort of prize and thus giving back to the people who contributed from their heart to support him.

Well, as the "administrator" of the donation fund, I started looking into the possibilities and have come up with a pretty good raffle. With the generous help of Ron from right here at BT, Paul Bushee from the Catonsville Bike Shop in Catonsville, Maryland (my old shop owner and good friend), and Emilio Desoto (yes, the owner of the Desoto Sport company - and recent BT poster) I have put together what I feel is a great group of raffle prizes that we will be awarding after receiving donations/entries from everyone.

The list of goodies (and pictures to follow) are:

- BT Temporary Tatoos - 20 of them - retail value $20 (courtesy of Ron)
- BT Bronze membership - 6 month - retail value $25 (courtesy of Ron)
- BT Silver Membership - 6 month - retail value $45 (courtesy of Ron)
- BT Gold Membership - 6 month - retail value $75 (courtesy of Ron)
- A gift certificate to the BT store for $50 for any purchases there (courtesy of Ron)
- A pair of Oakley Half Jackets in a standard color - retail value of $105 (courtesy of The Catonsville Bike Shop)
- A pair of Profile Carbon Strykes - retail value of $155 (courtesy of The Catonsville Bike Shop)
- A Specialized Decibel helmet - retail value of $170 (courtesy of The Catonsville Bike Shop)
- A Desoto Transition Pack - retail value of $64 (courtesy of Emilio Desoto)
- And what can be considered the "Grand Prize" - a Desoto T1 Black Pearl bib john and pullover wetsuit - retail value of $330 (courtesy of Emilio Desoto)

Each raffle "ticket" will be $5 and each ticket has an equal chance of winning any one of the prizes. I will be purchasing the tickets from a local party store and will keep them in a bucket until the time we do the drawing for the prizes. At that time I will have any and all local BT'ers to my area as "witnesses" (or even better yet if we can arrange it - meet with Joel to have him do it) and draw the winning tickets and post all winners on the forum. For the items that require sizing (wetsuit and helmet) we will then get the sizing for the winners and order the product and have them shipped directly to the winners.

I will take raffle ticket purchases either through my Paypal account at [email protected] or directly through snail mail at:

Rick Carter
P.O. Box 307
Fulton, MD 20759

Please include your name, your BT log-in and e-mail so that we can accurately track everything. If you are going to snail mail anything, please leave ample time for it to arrive before the drawing happens! We will try and schedule the drawing for the end of this month (May).

Of course if anyone just wants to donate to the fund (that has not already) and does not want to enter the raffle, all donations will be excepted! For those that have already donated, please let me know if you would like to allocate your money to raffle tickets (I would think that would be everyone ) or just leave it as a donation. The "big idea" is that perhaps this can become a resource to help other BT'ers in (God forbid) similar situations in the future.

Thank you all so much, and most of all a big thank you to the guys who have donated their products and services to make helping our fellow BT'er possible. Good luck!!