What's more fun than riding your bike, you might ask? Riding your bike to help fight kids' cancer!
This past Spring, one of our Lectric team members came across an awesome initiative put on by the Children's Cancer Research Fund called the Great Cycle Challenge.
Our team knew we wanted to be a part of it almost immediately since it seemed like the perfect way to merge cycling and an extremely worthy cause together. Keep reading to learn about the Great Cycle Challenge's incredible impact, and how you can be a part of it!
The Foundation
It all started with a little girl named Katie from Wayzata, MN. In 1979, Katie was just 13 years old and saving up for her very own 10-speed bicycle. In the midst of her savings, she was sadly diagnosed with leukemia, and her health decreased gradually as there was little knowledge of childhood cancers at the time.
Katie asked that the money she saved up for the bike be donated to a little-known fund at the University of Minnesota called the Children's Cancer Research Fund (CCRF).
Today, CCRF is a significant national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending childhood cancer. Since only 4% of federal funding is available for childhood cancer research, CCRF's efforts are crucial when it comes to making a difference in saving little ones' lives.
Since 1981, they've contributed over $200 million to research, support programs for children and families, and education and awareness outreach. Their incredible funding efforts support the following areas:
- Launching new ideas with seed grants for innovative research that holds great promise but doesn’t yet qualify for larger grants.
- Introducing clinical trials that lead to new treatments and medicine.
- Filling funding gaps that can slow down or halt potentially lifesaving projects.
- Training the next generation of researchers.
- Fostering collaboration and sharing information to accelerate promising discoveries.
- Purchasing much-needed research and medical equipment.
CCRF's funding has led to breakthroughs that have helped increase childhood cancer survival rates to over 80%. Their hope is to get that figure up to 100% so that kiddos can beat their cancers and lead a long, healthy, and happy life thereafter!
The Challenge
In 2015, CCRF wanted to implement a new means of fundraising that would keep little Katie's love of cycling in motion. They started the Great Cycle Challenge, which asked people of all ages and abilities throughout the US to set a personal riding goal and keep pedaling forward toward a cure.
Throughout the past seven years that this challenge has been active, the foundation's community of riders has ridden a total of 25,647,476 miles, and together they’ve raised $52,524,379 in support of research to develop better treatments and find a cure for childhood cancer.
Our Goal
The Great Cycle Challenge's passion and persistence when it comes to ending childhood cancer through riding speaks for itself, and we knew that our community of riders throughout the US would be just as stoked as we are to participate in this worthy cause.
Our team here at Lectric eBikes will donate $1 for every mile ridden, up to $100,000 for all riders that join the "Lectric eBikes" team! Traditional bikes and eBikes are both welcome. Several of our team members at our Phoenix, AZ headquarters are participating, and we can't wait to see how many of our spirited riders join us on this exciting September adventure!
How to Register
Wondering how you can join us? Registering for the Great Cycle Challenge is quick and easy!
You can either check out the tutorial video below or visit the Great Cycle Challenge website and use the following written instructions as a guide:
1. Once you enter the Great Cycle Challenge website, you should see a signup button in the upper right corner. Click here and complete the steps to create your individual rider account.
2. You will be asked to select both a mile and donation goal. There's no amount too big or too small, we are grateful to participants of all capacities!
3. Once you've completed your individual account, you should see a pop-up to join a team. You can find our team by typing "Lectric eBikes" and then clicking "join." If you do not see a pop-up option, you can also search for teams to join by pressing the "create a team" button in the top right corner of your rider profile.
4. From there, you may wish to download one of their recommended apps to track your miles ridden throughout the month. You may download the GCC app (you can also connect an existing Strava or MapMyFitness account/app to track your miles), or you may upload your miles manually through your rider profile.
5. Once that is complete, it's time to ride. Let's do this!