Maintenance Tip: Spring Maintenance Video

You packed your bike away in the basement or garage last fall, hunkered down for another long Canadian winter and have not looked at your bike since. With the spring sunshine giving you the itch to gear up, make sure that you give your bike a little TLC before you get back on the road.

In the video below Canadian Cycling Magazine’s gear editor Gus Alexadropoulos shares a few tips on getting ready for the upcoming riding season.

Not handy when it comes to bike maintenance? Don’t worry! MS Friendly Bike Shops offer free inspections to all participants of the RONA MS Bike Tour.

Click here to sign up for a RONA MS Bike Tour! 5 Weekends, 5 Tours, 1 Cure for MS.

MS Carnation Campaign – Use the Power of the Flower!

From May 5 to May 7 2011, thousands of dedicated volunteers in more than 280 communities across Canada will be in bloom just prior to Mother's Day as the 35th annual MS Carnation Campaign will use the “power of the flower” to help end MS.

Carnations will be on sale outside supermarkets, banks, LCBOs, Beer Stores, and in shopping malls, and all money raised will go to support the activities of your local MS Society Chapter.

Why Mother's Day?

Held in conjunction with MS Awareness Month, the MS Carnation Campaign has raised more than $45 million since its inception in 1976. The campaign’s timing just before Mother’s Day is particularly appropriate since multiple sclerosis is diagnosed in women three times as often as men. Many people living with MS are mothers, and this unpredictable, often disabling disease affects entire families.

Help raise awareness about multiple sclerosis by purchasing a carnation and together we will end MS.

For questions regarding the MS Carnation Campaign,  and information about how you can get involved, please contact:

               

Freya Potter

416-922-6600, ext. 3157

Freya.potter@mssociety.ca

To learn more about MS research, please click here.

To learn more about the support and services the MS Society can help provide, please click here.

Team Profile: Meet Team The Plan!

The RONA MS Bike Tour is a unique way to get together outside the office for Team The Plan, made up of employees and clients from Investors Group Financial Services in Whitby.

“As in many offices, we work with a lot of people but may not know each other except to say hello in passing,” says team captain Luke Scott. “This is an opportunity to do something together, to share a common goal, and to get to know each other outside the workplace environment.”

“By also inviting clients to join us, we develop those relationships and add a whole new dimension to them,” he adds. “Ultimately we’re connected to each other in a different way.”

While part of the incentive behind the team was to build relationships, Luke says that helping to end MS is as important as the networking. “We’re committed to giving back to the community and supporting causes we’re passionate about.”

After riding for the first time in 2010, the team hopes to double its size this year. “Taking part in the tour definitely solidifies our colleague and client connections, and that benefit carries forward into our everyday work,” Luke says. “And since we’re supporting a very worthwhile cause, we’re winning on both sides.”

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Distribute RONA MS Bike Tour brochures and boost your fundraising total!



Image: Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


Looking for a way to increase your fundraising dollars? Distribute RONA MS Bike Tour brochures in your community and you’ll receive $2 towards your personal fundraising for every location you visit*. It’s a great way to spread the word about cycling to end MS and fundraise at the same time!

For more information and to sign up, please contact Erin Clifford at erin.clifford@mssociety.ca.

*A minimum 7-hour time commitment is required.

Fundraising Tip: Pledge Yourself!

A couple of weeks ago we posted a fundraising tip about how to raise $1000 without breaking a sweat. In the blog, we outlined eight simple steps that would help take you from $0 to $1000 in no time. Do you remember what the first step was?

You guessed it. Pledge yourself! But what you probably didn’t know is how important that first step really is to your overall fundraising success.

Recent studies show that participants who pledge themselves turn in 2.5 times as much money as those that simply ask others and 5 times as much as those that simply show up and write a cheque.

Why?

Well, quite frankly it’s called putting your money where your mouth is. It’s a lot easier to get friends and family members to pledge you in the RONA MS Bike Tours, if you can say that you have personally donated to your efforts.

After all, if you truly believe in a cause you have to be willing to take the first step.

Have another great tip to share? Leave us a ‘wall post’ on Facebook or a ‘tweet’ on Twitter! You never know, your tip might even be included in our next blog post!

Fundraising Tip: Everybody Loves Bake Sales!

It’s true. Everybody loves bake sales! Just ask the staff here at the MS Society of Canada. Mike Augustine, one of our MS Ambassadors, organized a bake sale for us last week and you should’ve seen the line-up!

Mike is fundraising for the MS Climb to Mount Everest and hopes to raise over $66,000 to help end MS. Although the bake sale isn’t his only fundraising strategy, it was a simple way for Mike to raise some money and tell people about his goal.

So what does Mike’s bake sale have to do with the RONA MS Bike Tours?

Well, it’s a great idea that you could use to help bolster your own fundraising efforts! Here are five simple steps you can follow to get your bake sale organized today:

Send an email to your coworkers. Announce the date of your upcoming bake sale and encourage your coworkers to bring change on that day to help support your participation in the RONA MS Bike Tours.

Choose a recipe. Or a few recipes! Cookies, brownies and cupcakes are all fan favourites.

Pick up any needed ingredients. For the most part, you’ll probably already have a lot of the ingredients. However, take a look at each recipe and grab any missing ingredients at your nearest grocery store.

Follow the instructions. As long as you carefully follow the recipe instructions, baking is as easy as pie!

Set up at your desk or in the office kitchen. Bring your delicious baked goods with you to work on the day of your bake sale. Set up shop at either your desk or in the office kitchen and email your coworkers reminding them about the bake sale.

Have another great tip to share? Leave us a ‘wall post’ on Facebook or a ‘tweet’ on Twitter! You never know, your tip might even be included in our next blog post!