Subject: Urge Change of Pace to donate cancelled Donner Lake Tri race fees to disaster relief All:
The Donner Lake Triathlon was recently cancelled due to the poor air quality caused by the smoke from the many, many fires here in Northern California. Read the Race Director's statements here: http://www.changeofpace.com/Donner_lake_tri.html.Living in Truckee at the race site, I have no doubt this is the right decision.
In his July 10th letter, Dave Miramontes states: "Unfortunately the triathlon cannot be rescheduled and we are unable to offer refunds due to costs incurred for developing this year’s race." He follows this up in a July 11th letter with: "While we have stated that all entries are non-refundable, we will of course be providing some compensation into next year’s event."
I don't doubt that there are many costs that had to be paid upfront, and that Dave and Change of Pace have a storage area now filled with useless 2008 race t-shirts and other items that they had planned to use on July 13th. Absolutelyl, Change of Pace should cover their costs for developing this event.
However, I can't believe that there isn't a savings to be realized for not trucking all the gear and personnel up to Truckee, and for not actually running the race. Now, I'm not advocating for a refund, or even 'compensation' into next year's event. Rather, I'd like to see a reasonable portion of the proceeds from this now non-event donated to a disaster relief fund (such as the American Red Cross ) to help support the many people working around the clock to contain these fires, and to help the many people who've suffered losses. I'd be more than happy to contribute my 'compensation' towards this fund.
Please join me in urging the Donner Lake Triathlon Race Director Dave Miramontes to donate a portion of this year's race fees towards disaster relief, and to the American Red Cross. You can send an email to him at [email protected].
Thanks,
Keith Juhola
TruckeeTriGuy
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