2011 Day 15

Last year St. Joseph's Catholic School in Bowmanville did such an amazing job fundraising for us, we never thought they would be able to top it this year........but they did !!!!

Not only were they in the top ten schools overall for total fundraising this year, they had the most on-line participants of any school, raising over $10,000 on-line alone, and I'm also pretty sure they had the most posters and banners ever displayed for our ride in to their school.

When we headed down the street you could see the students waiting for us at the corner, than another corner, and finally another turn, students students students, everywhere. So it was only fitting that this was the school we chose to showcase for other police services to see just how we do things on the tour. We were happy to have members of the R.C.M.P and the Belleville Police Service in attendance. We also had Sue Rollins from the Belleville branch of the Canadian Cancer Society come to watch the show. You may just see a Pedal For Hope team in the Belleville area real soon.

The gym was packed and the students were excited to see us. This school was so enthusiastic about the team being there, they even re-scheduled their Sr. Kindergarten class so they would be able to be at school to watch the show, and what a show it was, we shaved 45 heads and cut 15 ponies for the cause.

For at least one little girl we actually did both, pony and shave. Congrats to Maude who led by example that day. Not only did she lead the school in fundraising, she donated her 30 cm hair for a wig and than shaved her head to support the cause. A true hero, sacrificing her hair to support those living with cancer.

A great video of Maude can be found below.

At the end of the assembly the school was super excited to donate over $16,000 !!!!!!!

McHappy Day 2011

After we wrapped up our last school today we drove back to Peterborough to cause havoc for a bunch of employees at McDonalds one store at a time.

Pedal For Hope was having a McHappy Day and as we visited each store, we gained more and more respect for the McDonalds employees. It's hard work running around trying to serve each customer in record setting time, and it's even harder when you have 15 police officers getting in the way !!

Our first stop was on The Parkway, than Willowcreek, and finally ended up at the Chemong Rd

restaurant. It was a fantastic day and we look forward to this day every year.

We can't thank Jamie, Terri, and Angel enough for allowing us to be part of this amazing day for the last 3 years. Not to mention the 2 years before that when they donated the proceeds from the new launches of snack wraps and ice coffee. Over the past 5 years the McDonalds stores in Peterborough, Lakefield and Bancroft have donated over $40,000 towards ending Pediatric Cancer.

After a hard night of flipping burgers and serving fries, it was time to get some rest. the very next day, Angel contacted us and advised that McHappy Day 2011 had raised $13,000 !!!!

2011 Day 14

Today we started out the day back in Peterborough at Armour Heights Public School. Although the tour is down in the Newcastle, Bowmanville area, we squeezed in a visit back near home.

We always have a great time visiting Armour Heights, and this year was no exception. The students were lined up with their signs as we slowly made our way up McFarlane Street to the school.

Once inside our Morph's entertained the kids, we shaved some heads and lots of hair was donated to make wigs for kids with cancer.

After Armour Heights we were back on the highway to pick up

where we left off

yesterday down in Newcastle. Our second stop of the day was at Newcastle Public School. This was our first visit to this school and it was awesome. The students were very enthusiastic right from the minute we turned onto their street. 600 kids were lining both sides of the street as we rode by.

Once we finally got everyone back inside the gym the show was on. I think our Morphs get better and better with each show we do. The kids love them !!

Our third and final stop of the day was in Bowmanville at Holy Family Catholic School. Mrs Towns & Mrs Cavanaugh do an awesome job energizing the students into high gear. When we turned the corner we could see every student lined up with posters and banners welcoming us to their school. We had to make three passes down the driveway, across the road and in the second driveway to meet each student.

It was fun to watch Holy Family's very own Emily and Madison in our video, they received an overwhelming cheer from the crowd.

One of the high lights of the afternoon was meeting Farrah, a brave girl who is going thru treatment for cancer. As students lined up to cut their ponies, which will be donated to make wigs for kids, there was Farrah, standing there wearing a wig from donated hair. For the first time we seen the results of our donations. It was very inspiring. Even Farrah's cousin attended the school, and yes you guessed it, to cut her pony tail.

This school has been in the top fundraising categories every year they have participated, and this year they stayed near the top with their $10,800 donation !!!!

After the assembly the school treated us to a pizza lunch before we headed back on the road.

2011 Day 13

Today was a great ride along the shores of Lake Ontario as we visited Coburg and Port Hope. The weather was in our favour and even the wind was travelling in the right direction.

It was a short 4km ride thru town before arriving at our first stop,

Grant Sine Public School. They are a small school, but they have lot's of heart, and lot's of vocal cords !!! The school has around 60

students but the day we arrived they sounded like 600 students. Especially when their eating ice cream !!!

We didn't shave any heads at this stop, but we were introduced to Danika, who is going to cut her pony tail next week and donate it to make a wig.

After a short 10km ride we arrived at our second stop, St. Anthony's in Port Hope. I love visiting Port Hope, it's nice and small and reminds me of a post card. There's only one small problem with Port Hope, they put a massive hill right in the middle of town, and we had to

climb up it to get to the school. All the students were lined up outside as we rolled into their parking lot, led by Constable Marino and his fancy new Charger.

Once inside we shaved 10 heads, cut 2 ponies, and dyed over 20 heads of hair a variety of colours. The school raised over $2,200 and we also received a generous donation from Linda Linker and the Amanda Linker Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Our final stop of the day was the shortest ride on tour, right across the street at Ganaraska Trail Public School. No matter how bad the weather is on tour, it always turns Sunny in Port Hope. Our long time friend and huge supporter Sunny was the first person we seen as we rode into the school. She has been following the team for 6 years now and we appreciate all her support.

We were honoured to have Constables Payton and Wood from the Port Hope Police Service join us to watch the show. Constable Payton even joined in and had her hair dyed to show her support.

Special acknowledgements to Elizabeth and Madison who cut their ponies to make wigs for kids with cancer. Great job girls !!!!

At the end of the day the team rode 25km's to Newcastle to be ready for tomorrow.

2011 Day 12

Today was a gorgeous sunny day. Likely the best day we have had so far on the tour. We started our day at a brand new school, Northumberland Hills Public School. This school is new, and amazing. It's big, it's bright and the kids were excited to see us.

My day didn't start off great, while waiting for the team to get bikes ready I was coasting down the road, unfortunately for me I hit a patch of gravel and down I went. It was a slow speed and I felt like I was falling in slow motion. I did manage to do somewhat of a side somersault while rolling around on the ground with my shoe clips still locked into

the pedals. It was a funny way to start the day, but I didn't know then, was it wasn't going to be the only time I found myself on the ground today !!!

Once inside we cut 3 ponies and shaved 10 heads and at the end of the assembly Pedal For Hope was presented with $3050.00 plus some hard earned money from the grade 3/4 class. They helped out by having a bottle and can drive. Great work !!!

One of the nicest moments of the day happened today at Northumberland Hills, as I walked into the gym I noticed a card on the table where we set up our P.A system. The hand made card was from Olivia and she wanted to let the team know that she was a champion last year in our obstacle course and brought her medal to school to show us. The letter went on to say

that she had the time of her life and she never got the chance to thank us for making her so popular in school. Well Olivia, I now have your card and I am putting it on my desk

in the Pedal For Hope headquarters. Thank you so much for your awesome kind words. It's students like you who keep us going day after day, kilometer after kilometer.

Our second stop of the day was in Baltimore, and for me it was the second wipe out of the day. As we were approaching the school you make a left turn and go straight up hill, way up hill. As I was out of my seat really hammering on the pedals, I could hear my gears having some serious problems. As I turned into the school driveway I tried to gear down so I was in a nice easy gear to be able to high five the students, unfortunately right than and there my chain came off and wedged in my pedal, and once again being clipped into my pedals, it was not a good time to come to a complete stop. Once your at a complete stop

with your feet locked into the pedals, theres only one place your going........DOWN !! I did manage to laugh that spill off too, but not as much as my team mates were laughing about it.

Mrs. Beale had Baltimore rocking as we cut 7 pony tails, shaved 6 heads, and of course dyed Mrs. Beale's hair bright red. This isn't the first time she has been subjected to this punishment by her students. Mrs. Beale is a great supporter of Pedal For Hope and we appreciate all her sacrifices for the cause.

The students presented us with $4543 that the school raised, plus we were presented with a cheque from Dance For Hope, which is a charity dance to remember Kim Hope, daughter of Carolyn and Tom Heffernan. We are honoured that the Heffernan family choose Pedal For Hope to be their charity of choice in remembering their daughter. Carolyn stepped up to the front of the school and presented the team with a cheque for $5206 !!!!

It didn't stop there, we also had an envelope presented to us containing $51.37, which was raised by selling bracelets to the students. Great work to Janessa, Adam, Nick, Kaylee, Drew, Colleen, Lexxi and Amy for being creative and having great initiative in your fundraising efforts.

Our final stop of the day was in Plainville, the only problem with that is once you leave Baltimore and turn onto Dale Road, it's all up hill. In fact we measured one hill that stretched up for over 6 km's. Now you might not think that's much when your in a car, but on a bicycle it feels like it's never going to end.

When we arrived at the school it was a sea of blue and yellow streamers, the kids were waving them all over the place like pom pom's on a cheerleader. It was a great sight in the gym as they waved them to the beat of the music.

Plainville Public School used our assembly as a kickoff to their fundraising campaign. We cut 7 ponies and shaved 2 heads. What made it special was the fact that the 2 head shaves were girls. Congrats to Mackenzie and Claire for supporting the cause. The Women's Olympic Team would be proud of you. Plainville definitely showed that 'Girls Rule'.

After the assembly we were back on our bikes travelling south towards Coburg, but this time we got to ride down the hill we struggled to get up, and it was fun and it was fast !!!!

2011 MidLife Crisis Concert

Tonight was an amazing event. Peterborough's very own musicians F.O.G, Aaron MacMillan, and MidLife Crisis took to the stage to entertain about 400 people at The Junction. The floor shook and the bass boomed as the bands rocked the place !!!

A percentage of the proceeds from ticket sales went to Pedal For Hope.

During an intermission we watched Carey Walker, the promo guy from Wolf 101.5fm get his head shaved.

All in all it was a fantastic night and thanks to the bands and Carey, a great deal of money was raised for Pedal For Hope. Thanks guys, we really appreciate what you do for us year after year.

2011 Day 11

Today was going to be a long riding day for the team, nearly 80km's of riding with 3 stops, Percy Centennial in Warkworth, Stockdale Public School, and finishing up at Brighton Public School.

We arrived in Warkworth first thing in the morning and the energy at Percy was awesome. The kids were excited that we were there and we were even more excited to be back in Warkworth.

We had a great time at this school and look forward to returning next year. Percy always does a great job fundraising and this year was no exception. At the end of the assembly, Pedal For Hope was presented with a cheque for more than $4000 !!! Great job Percy Centennial.

From there it was a pretty good ride to Stockdale Public School, a little hilly

,but we managed to get the job done. Like I have said before, no matter how hilly the ride, when you come down the road and see the students outside cheering you on, holding posters, the hills seem to disappear. I still wish we would have remembered to take this poster, it's awesome. Girls, if you still have it, send a email to our website and we will come and get it.

Once inside there was a big line up for head shaves and pony tail cuts, and than it went crazy during the icecream eating contest. Stockdale Public School definitely has champion ice cream eaters !! It was also a treat to see one of our Special Friends, Kayla in the crowd to watch the show. As usual, she didn't stay there long, our Special Friends are part of our team and they come right up to the front to help us out.

Our day ended in Brighton where the team visited Brighton Public School. Unfortunately when your on a bicycle, having to travel 30km's to another school, sometimes mother nature isn't too kind to you. It wasn't rain this time, it was wind, real windy !!! Remember, like I described before, like riding your bicycle with a parachute on your back.

The team rolled into Brighton Public School a little late, but we managed to squeeze in a good amount of fun. We had a head shave, a pony tail cut, ate some ice cream, and met Mrs. Norris, one of the newest teachers in Brighton. HaHa. Todd definitely lost out on that challenge. He's a great sport for doing it.

We had to cut the assembly short so the kids could catch the busses, but some team members will be back on Monday to enjoy the second part of the assembly. I hear there are going to be some whip cream pies being tossed around on that day.

Now it's back to Peterborough to prepare for the MidLife Crisis Charity concert being held at the Junction. The best part of the night will be watching the lovely Angel shave the Wolf 101.5's promo guy, Carey Walker's head.