Spinning for $27,650 Dollars
This past Saturday and Sunday there was a spin-a-thon at the Rye YMCA and the Altheus Endurance Center to raise money for the Blazeman Foundation and the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
Organized by Ray Kelly, Phil Gormley, Jim Carlson and Anna Mackay with the help of Diana Vita at the Rye YMCA and Rocco at Altheus Endurance Center, the event raised $27,650 for the two organizations.
Saturday was National Blazeman Day named after Jon Blaise, a triathlete who was diagnosed with ALS. The aim of the Blazeman Foundation (Jon died in June 2007) is to raise awareness of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and try to encourage research to find a cure for this incurable killer disease.
The spin-a-thon was first held in 2007 and raised $10,000 for the Blazeman Foundation. This year the event was held at both the Rye YMCA and the Altheus Endurance Center. In addition to Saturday’s event for the Blazeman Foundation the organizers added a Sunday effort to raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation which provides grants for equipment and coaching for disabled athletes.
Some participants rode for three hours. The biggest individual fund raiser raised $2,600. A total of 70 people took part Saturday and 50 on Sunday. $18,200 was raised Saturday for the The Blazeman Foundation and Friend’s of Claire (for ALS) and on Sunday $9,450 was raised for the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
