Good morning and happy Tuesday!  Well, I'm through with on-line Defensive Driving (highly recommended), and am reasonably caught up at work, so I can do a real blog entry for you today...

Valero MS 150 Bike to the Beach Final Week Checklist

What should you be doing now to get ready for the MS 150?  Click here to see our final week checklist.

MS 150 Fundraising

There was an article in the SA Life section of the San Antonio Express News yesterday which talked about the fundraising being performed for the MS 150 this year.   (Click here to read the article.)  I'll summarize the main points for you: Velo Valero is once again the top fundraising team for this event (by a huge margin), and we are  described as a "team on a (fundraising) mission".    As of 09:15 am this morning, we were at almost $140,000, which is 56% of our target goal of $250,000 - and the dollars keep pouring in!     As I mentioned last time, we still have a lot of upside potential, because 139 team members (60%) are still below the minimum of $300, and 105 team members (46%) have not had any funds posted to their accounts.   If everyone who is registered to ride with team Velo Valero who is currently below the minimum raises at least the minimum, our fundrasiing would be at $176,367, or almost 71% of our target.    Moreover, we have another round of t-shirt sales during lunch tomorrow, and we have a few more fundraisers up our sleeves for November.  The glass is more than half full, and getting fuller every day!  To see our current fundraising totals, click here.

If you haven't started your fundraising yet, what are you waiting for?  I don't ask for much, but I do ask for this, and I'm not taking no for an answer.  Everyone who rides with Team Velo Valero needs to raise at least the minimum for this event ($300) - this, my friends, is the real reason we are riding! 

  As always, please contact our Board Member in charge of fundrasing, David Sloan (david.sloan@valero.com), if you have any questions or concerns.  And, please check out list of fundraising tips if you haven't done so already. 

I'm so proud of each and every one of you for what you are doing to help the victims of MS.

Oklahoma MS 150

Somehow I let this item slip through the cracks, and for that, I apologize to the good folks at the Valero Ardmore Refinery who rode in the Oklahoma MS 150 a few weeks ago on September 22-23.   Here's the report from Steve Evans -

Thanks again for the jerseys. Appreciate everyone's help in allowing us to look like a team. We had six people ride the Oklahoma MS150. We lost a few others to scheduling conflicts and such. Still we made up a nice mix of riders from very avid, experienced riders, to the beginner. For me, it was my first event of this type, on my bike. It's a whole new experience from what I saw as volunteer during Tour-de-Cure events. We all rode the entire distance, not including the "eye-opening" hill within the first mile of day 2. I'll just admit now to the rest of the world that I did fall on that hill trying to unclip my shoe. I only suffered a bruised ego, especially when I saw our Matt Bailey come up behind me. I took some ribbing by not disclosing my spill to the rest of the team. So I now share my embarrassing moment with all of you, with a smile.

After all was done, it was a satisfying feeling knowing that we completed this ride. Made a few friends along the way. And, rose over $6,000 to help find a cure for MS. Again, thanks for the loaner jerseys. Good luck with the Bike to Beach.

- Steve

Rider of the Week

 Our New Rider of the Week is - drum roll, please! - Hal Zesch, SVP and CIO of Valero Energy Corporation.  Hal has made tremendous progress as a cyclist since he started training with us in August - to read more about him, click here.

Special Instructions for Valero Employees Riding the MS 150

Flu Shots

 Board Member and Wellness Center Nurse Donna Escobar recommends that folks riding the Valero MS 150 do not get their flu shots this week.  It will be much better to wait until next week, after the ride.  The Wellness Center will have extra doses available for team members then.  Please call the Wellness Center ahead of time to schedule an appointment to get your shot.

Volunteer Credit for Riding

If you are riding in the MS 150, don't be bashful about it - go to the Intranet SignUp Facility and sign up for the event - get the volunteer hours you deserve for participating.    Look under Valero Volunteers + 2007 Valero MS 150 Bike to the Beach + Riders.

That's it for now - I'll have more for you later in the week.

See ya' on the road!

- Peter