CEO Bill Klesse sent this message to all employees on Friday, December 8th:

All of you can take a lot of pride in the great success that we achieved with this year’s Valero MS 150 charity bike ride.  In addition to serving as title sponsor of the event, Valero outnumbered every other team in the ride from San Antonio to Corpus Christi.

At a recent appreciation event, Valero received a number of awards that showed the team’s commitment to this very worthy cause, including:

• Top Fundraising Team ($200,000 and counting)
• Top Fundraiser (Thanks to the generous contributions of many of you, I received this award for raising $36,700.)
• Largest Team (250 members)
• Best Looking One-Day Rest Stop (Three Rivers -- Eddie Gamez,  Debbie Matheaus and Elizabeth Galbreath)
• Most Spirited Team (tie)
• Best Looking Team Jersey (tie)

I want to thank all Valero employees who participated in this fundraiser.  Whether you were a volunteer, cyclist or someone who donated funds to a co-worker who was riding, Valero could not have achieved the record $200,000 fundraising mark without your contributions. Valero received a lot of praise and media attention as a result of everyone’s efforts and the title sponsorship. And I would like to especially thank Velo Valero Captain Laura Vaccaro for all of her hard work and leadership that made this such a successful charity event.

Photos from the recent appreciation party can be found at Velo Valero’s Web site. To view these photos, simply click on the links below.

http://www.velovalero.com/forums/thread/1128.aspx

Thanks again for your tremendous support of this event.  And if you did not participate this year, I hope you will consider joining us next year.   If I can make the ride, so can you!