ALC 2014 Kick-off Party and Expo

Saturday was the ALC 2014 Kick-off party and expo. It was held at the San Francisco County Fair building in Golden Gate park. I've never been to the Co. Fair building before and I knew that parking could be tough in Golden Gate park so I made sure to get there early.

After getting myself checked in, I started to make my way around the expo. I headed over to the Pedal it Forward booth first thing. A friend of mine was running the booth and not only did I want to say Hi, but I wanted to check out what they had to offer.  Also I was going to donate my old bike computer, since I no longer have a need for it. Pedal it Forward collects gently used and new gear to give to first time riders so that they can be better prepared for the ride. It is a pretty cool organization and they ended up helping a lot of new riders out. I was glad I went there first because I was able to get a pair of Voler bibs as well as a pair of shorts. Later on in the day when I stopped back they no longer had any women's bottoms, the only had jersey tops left. I found two nice jerseys and a cool ALC bandana.

 

 

Besides the fact that I wanted to check out all the vendors to see what all they had to offer, they were giving away a gift that you could earn by going to each vendor booth and having them sign your expo map. If you got all the signatures and went too the info booth, you got a free mini LED flashlight. So of course I did that and got myself a cool little flashlight.

Once I had visited each booth, I figured that it was a good time to start trying to sell some of the things I had brought with me. I've been working on a bunch of new fundraising ideas. Here are some of my latest crafts...

Recycled bicycle tube key chain lanyard

 Bicycle print key chain lanyard

Recycled bicycle tube zippered pouch

Bicycle print pleated zipper pouch

Bicycle print business card holder

 

 

Recycled bicycle tube earrings

I was able to sell a couple of the recycled bicycle tube key lanyards at the expo. I'm planning on posting my items up on my friends made4aid.com site as well as continue to try to sell things at my training rides.

Speaking of fundraising, I hit the $1000 mark online on Saturday. YAY! I still have more money from my ornament sales that will be donated in about a month and then company matched a month after that. I'm getting close to hitting my minimum here soon. That is going to be such a relief when I do.

Anyway, back to the expo... at about 2pm they gathered everyone up for the raffle. They started with a little presentation showing photos from last year's ride. They asked the crowd with a show of hands, who had done the ride once, then twice, then three time, working there way down to 15 times. I was amazed that there were a few veteran riders who had done the AIDS Lifecycle ride more than 14 times. That is amazing and inspiring to see how dedicated they are to finding an end to AIDS. 

Along with the presentations and speeches by various AIDS Lifecycle organization members they pulled names for the raffles. They had four bikes that were donated for the raffle. They ranged in value from $600 up to $1700. Unfortunately I didn't win and I didn't know any of the winners. Would have been cool if one of the winners was from the South Bay Blaze. I was kind of disappointed with the raffle in general because the had 5 prizes that were LOADED! It would have been nice if they would have broken out the prize packages a bit and given more people a chance at winning something. There were around (if not over) a thousand people there. Plus, for those who won the bikes, do they seriously need more stuff, they just won a $600+ bicycle. Oh well, nothing to do about it now. 

Once the raffle was over, the event came to an end. I hung out for about another hour with some of my teammates that I haven't seen in a while since I haven't been training with them recently. I think I'm going to start making my drive down there on Saturdays. I miss my team!