TOMORROW. This time of the year has come again for Long Beachs only biking event. Ive been counting down for quite some time now and for those of you who dont know, heres a little background on the Annual C.U.R.B. Bike Ride. 10 years ago, Matt Demerest, Casey Kantor, and I, thought it would be a good idea to gather our friends and ride around Long Beach...because it looked cool having a bunch of people cycling together. This was 2 years B.F. (Before Facebook) so we scrolled through our AOL Buddy Lists and invited everyone to come ride around Long Beach with us. We decided it would be a good idea to raise money for a charity and we knew of Citizens United to Remove Barriers. C.U.R.B. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help physically challenged people live a more accessible life. We met with Jim Conlon, the president of the organization, and told him our idea. He told his wife to come outside and see the three angels that were sent to his doorstep on Pennsylvania Avenue. He had C.U.R.B. t-shirts and said we could have them for whoever does the ride. He gave us a box of 20 t-shirts, we told him we looked forward to working with him and his organization and went on our way to see if local businesses would want to sponsor this event. It was very tough for three 14 year old boys to walk into stores, request to speak with the owners and/or managers, then ask them for money to sponsor the First Annual C.U.R.B. Bike Ride. Surprisingly we raised $1,000 in sponsors alone. A few days before the ride, we received the news that Jim Conlon had passed away. What do we do? We never got to meet other members of the organization so where do we go from here? We were still going to do it. Caseys mother, Laurie, owns LBEmbroidery. We took the 20 t-shirts to her and asked her if she would be able to embroider In Memory of James P. Conlon on the sleeve of each shirt. She said she would. Shes embroidered every shirt since that day for the Annual C.U.R.B. Bike Ride...out of the kindness of her heart. August 31 was here. The First Annual C.U.R.B. Bike Ride, In Memory of James P. Conlon. We went to City Hall (the decided meeting place) at 12PM. It was Casey, Matt, me, and four others (all related to us). Okay, this will be fun, but we figured wed wait to see if anyone else came. 4 more friends, then 5 more, then 3 more, then 7 more! 26 riders! We never would have imagined this many. We ran out of t-shirts! Who wouldve thought? We were so excited, raised another $250 through riders, and we set off on our then 26-mile tour of Long Beach, Lido, Point Lookout and Atlantic Beach. The years went on and we slowly spread the word farther and farther, and attracted more and more riders. This year, we are likely to run out of shirts again for the first time since 2004, but compared to our 20 shirts in 2004, we have 460 in 2014. Our ride has shortened from the 26-miler to an approximate 11-miler, and instead of my dad, Rich, biking into the middle of traffic to stop cars from hitting us, we have the cooperation of the entire Long Beach Police Department, Special Police Department, and Auxiliary Police Department. As three 25-year olds today, we still feel like those three 14-year olds with so much left to accomplish and so many new visions every day. This is one of the many reasons why we still organize this event today. No matter what the turnout tomorrow, we will continuously aim higher for the next year. Shoutout to the OG C.U.R.B. Bike Riders from 2004: Alex Rozansky, Michaela Fraser, Elana Taubman, Keith Lewy, Matt Shouldis, Zoe Papetti, Erin Pennell, Hunter ONeill, Molly Catherine, Kimberly El, Ellen Shouldis, Cassin Anna, Bryan Levine, Brianne Mentges, Riley Fee, Elizabeth Ann, Gordon P. Hemsley, Chris Carroll, Tim Bickford, Taylor ONeill, Case Wayne, and Rich Papetti.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:19:29 +0000
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