The following is a flyer that was circulated in Vancouver for a fundraising kick-off dinner that was held for us by one of the organizations we raised money for (FOG). Besides this dinner, we planned on raising funds through pizza sales, a community dinner to be held at the culmination of our trip, and a convocation reception/charity barbecue on the day that Math students were graduating. More details on those events follow the flyer.

CYCLING FOR OPPORTUNITY KICK-OFF DINNER Friday, April 30^th 1999 6:30 p.m.

The dinner is a kick-off event for a cross Canada bike-a-thon to raise money for the Fair Opportunities Group (FOG) Education Bursary Fund in Nicaragua and the Escuela de Espanol Pop Wuj (Pop Wuj Spanish School) in Guatemala.

Seven students will bike from Vancouver, BC to Waterloo, ON between May 1st 1999 and June 19th. The goal is to raise $4,500 ($1 per kilometre pedalled).

Come out and help us celebrate this remarkable commitment by young Canadians. The evening includes:

a delicious vegetarian Latin American dinner
slides and a talk about FOG's projects in Nicaragua
an update on Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua
possible dancing if the Latin tunes move us that way
the opportunity to meet the dynamic bike-a-thoners
fun, and more fun!

All proceeds raised go directly to the education projects. The FOG Bursary Fund will provide grants to help Nicaraguans living in poor areas who would not otherwise have the opportunity to pursue post secondary or continuing education. The Pop Wuj Spanish School helps fund the tuition and expenses of young scholars in Guatemala.

St. Anne's Anglican Church 4071 Francis Road, Richmond $25 General or $15 students/unemployed More info: 874-2427

The pizza sales were run successfully (evening Econ classes tend to have starving students roaming the halls during the break period--having the professor announce that pizza is for sale right outside means big business) and we raised around $200 over 3 or 4 nights.

The community dinner had to be cancelled for reasons beyond our control. Highlights for the event included a guest speaker, Christine Ichim, who rollerbladed across Canada in support of leukemia research (she is one of the stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul), a local band, a silent auction, and catered latin american food.

The Mathematics convocation reception/charity barbecue for graduating students and their families and friends became more of a strict convocation reception than a fundraising event because of a miscommunication between the Math Faculty, Federation Hall managers, and the cyclists. The event was still completed, however, with the silent auction items that had been gathered for the community dinner being used as the fundraising aspect of the barbecue, instead.

Fundraising events can be a lot of work, and quite honestly feel like more trouble than they're worth sometimes. On the other hand, the awareness generated by holding large scale events means that you can reach people that you normally wouldn't get to through media campaigns. There is also (for me) a better feeling for having offered people a service that they have been willing to pay for rather than asking for money from them for a cause with which they don't necessarily identify or understand.