Not doing a MS150 this year

In my Bio I mention that I was a avid bicylist. One of the things I did riding my bike was to particapte in rasing money for the MS Society which is a very important and good cause. Without it a lot people who have MS would not get needed help to make there lives better and more pain free.

This year for the first time in four years I have elected not to do another MS 150 which will be held next week. This would have been my sixth time to do one if I had particapted. In all I have ridden closed to a thousand miles raising money by riding my bicycle for the MS Society and raised approximately three thousand dollars . I do not really feel good about not doing one again this year but I felt it was a futile effort and I don't have the money to waste since I didn't do so well last year.

So why am I not doing it this year. It pure economics. Last year I raised about $670 for MS. It cost me out of my pocket closed to $500 to raise the $670. Participating in these events one has to pay for all of his own expenses except for meals provided during the bicycle tour. I always make a personal donation on top of my expenses.

It does not make a lot of sense for me to spend so much money and not do better at fund raising than I did last year. One person who had volunteer and committed their selves to sponsoring me withdrew their Pledge at the last minute . I did not have enough time left to try and make up the difference. It wasn't a money issue he just decided to sponsor someone else without notifying me of his change of heart until I reminded him that I had to ge all the money pledged turn it. He was one of my best friends and this did not go over very well with me.. I had others who pledge to sponsor me and and they did not live up to that pledge.

I was even banned from particpating in my high school web site by a person I grew up with and like very well. I was not allowed to mention my charity work and it got posted anyway on the site by one of my friends and so we both were banned pernamently.

Asking money for charity is hard enough without these kind of things happening. To often I am made to feel like I am begging for money for myself or that somehow I am personally benefiting by this. If I am benefiting it is by the exercise I get and the knowedge that I am doing something worthwhile. I am very proud of my past efforts.

I have also paid a high price for doing these charity rides by losing friends that I did not want to lose just because I ask for sponsorship. They now avoid me so I want ask again. Maybe next year I will try to do one again in spite of my bad experiences.

On another post below I have a lot errors in it. For some reason the software is not permitting me to edit them. I may be doing something wrong but I havn't figure it out.